“So Do It.” – An Unexpected Event

I’ve spent close to two years picturing my first time on Gracie. Would she take off bucking? Maybe turn around and bite me on the way up? Or, hopefully, just be cool with it? I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours of my life have been taken up thinking about this. Every time I take her out of the field, it’s to prepare her for this inevitable moment. I didn’t have a specific time frame figured out, thinking it would just one of those, “when you know, you know”, type deals.

So this morning I decided to saddle up Gracie for the first time in a few months. She was totally fine with it, even girthing. She worked with it fine, as well. As usual, my wonderful husband was out with me to keep me company and be there in case anything went wrong (because two year old). With her working as well as she was, I turned to him jokingly and said, “I kinda want to sit on her”. Of course, his reply was:

“So do it.”

I laughed, but he persuaded me into it. Not having steps to climb up, and not willing to mount from the ground (due to the pressure it puts on a horses back), I climbed up onto one of the nearby barrels. He held Gracie for me, and I slowly slid onto her back, holding my breath. Every possible scenario is running through my head at this point. And what happened?

Nothing!

She stood there like a good little girl, only turning her neck like, “Oh hey Mom, whatcha doin’ up there?”. I tell my husband to quickly take a picture before something bad happens, and he snapped this perfect picture with my cell phone. I’m glad to have this to look back on years from now!

At this point I’ve realized that A) I don’t have a helmet on and B) my bail-out skills are not the best. My husband was holding on to her, so I tried to quickly slide off. Of course, I kicked her (and not lightly) on the butt on my way down. And she had no reaction! Once I was safely on the ground, I was able to take everything in and see that she seemed completely unfazed.

Today was my sign that she is ready to go into real work. We had been taking things easy because of her age, and by no means do I plan to move into any heavy work any time soon, but she’s ready to step up. She’s ready to finish learning how to lope on the lunge, and once she has just a little more ground work finishing, I will be starting her under saddle for real.

Once I start her under saddle, the plan will be to teach her the absolute basics: Walk, stop, back up, turn, etc. And this will all be done in a halter. Once she’s comfortable and capable, I’ll add in a jog and make sure she has proper brakes. She’ll hopefully get to go off the property some to be exposed to new surroundings, and I would like to ride her through my fields to get her used to that, too. Until at least next spring (her third birthday), I plan to keep to very slow and easy work, working the mind much more than the body. I want her to be set up for success!

Here’s to the start of a new chapter in our lives together, and it’s a good one!