Hee, bareback

Following on my fabulous ride of the other night, I had a very good ride on Carley today, up at Gentle Giants. She hasn't been ridden in about a week and a half or so since she got kicked by another horse (right in the hoo-ha) so I wasn't sure if she was going to be wiggy or not. That said, I still had it in my mind that today I was going to forego the saddle and opted for bareback.

I haven't ridden a horse bareback since I was about fourteen. Ten years ago. Eesh.

That said, despite her 17-hand-something Belgian height? Carley's a wonderful horse for bareback. She's generally pretty laid back. And she's built like a laz-y-boy couch. I could've set a table for four on her ass. She was also nice and warm and fuzzy (winter coat has grown in).

The last time I rode her, she hadn't been inclined toward anything that resembled work (I was riding her that day without stirrups, actually, but with saddle, and it was a bitch). I thiiiink I've posted about that already. Of course, that time, there was no other horse in there with her.

Today? There were three other horses. So she was pretty good about going (I actually gave away my crop at one point because she was being pretty forward. A few minutes later she figured out I didn't have the crop and started getting lazy again so I eventually had to get a crop again because she wasn't listening to my leg.). We walked and trotted. She has a nice trot to sit to, but I did try to post a tiny bit. Which is a heckuva lot more difficult bareback than just sitting, so mostly I sat. We also walked over some ground poles, just to make things more interesting for her (I know I've mentioned before that Carley's not fond of the ring, she'd much rather be out on the trail).

I even managed to stay on when she shied.

That is, another horse (Gypsy, who was on her last ride at GG today as she's going to her new adopted home tomorrow) apparently decided the closed door at one end of the arena was OMGSCARYANDGOINGTOEATHER or something. So she spooked. All the way at the other end of the ring. Still, Carley apparently has a sympathetic link to Gypsy or something so she jumped to the side too. I didn't even slip.

I mentioned she's easy to sit on, right?

I told somebody I can add that to my list of "things I can sit". Along with "bucking school horse" I can now have "shying draft horse. bareback."

Hee.

All in all, a good day today.

Another lesson tomorrow at Columbia (and not on Cameo, thank goodness. I have Simone. Who, now that I think about it, I've already mentioned. Hah! Forgot I checked that on Friday.). And Tuesday in the morning? Private lesson, hee. Not sure who I'll be riding then. Will have to ask tomorrow. And after that, I'm planning on going back up to GG and will likely ride Carley once more bareback. Hopefully, she'll still be in a good mood. :)