After my lesson that didn’t happen Thursday, I was determined to ride my horse this weekend, even if it killed me (or him). I was up for the challenge. That said, he’s had a grand total of 2 rides this year and hasn’t been off the property since (early) July of last year. What could go wrong? But my trailer has new tires, the truck has new tires, and I needed to use them, right?

Wash stall lessons…

LOL.

So bright and early Saturday morning, I hitched the trailer up (second time since last July–first time was getting those new tires) and loaded Batt up. He seemed… confused. He hopped right in and hopped right out. We reloaded and in the trailer he stayed. Lol. We made the 5 minute journey over to Ranger’s barn for a ride in the ring where we first were re-introduced to scary stuff like wash stalls and cross ties.

Other than the wash stall? Everything else was a complete non issue. Batt marched in the ring, we set up a cross rail (there was a perfect jump without boxes or fill so I set it up JUST IN CASE–because what else do you do with your out of shape horse?) and I hopped on.

The FABULOUS (lol) cross rail

And we rode. We maneuvered puddles (those took some work). Walked. Trotted. And looked at that stupid cross rail. On re-approach at the walk, he launched himself over it, because that’s what stupid chestnut geldings do. And he was so proud of himself about his 18″ cross rail… We trotted over it about 6 more times before managing to canter about 1.2 times around each direction and called it a day with ring work. Being out of shape is hard, man!

Then, because he’s awesome, he let me unlatch the gate and we went for a walk around the property before revisting the wash stall and heading home.

Nothing fancy, nothing exciting, but honestly? A complete non event for someone’s first trip off the property in almost 14 months and 3rd ride in a year.

more wash stall practice… 

Stay tuned tomorrow for Sunday’s more exciting adventures.