My mom rode me today. It's been kind of a long time since she's done that so it seemed pretty special. Mom says we're starting from scratch. I'm not sure what she means by that but I do like a good scratch. I had one just today after she took my bridle off. It gets very itchy behind my ears.
Anyway, first she gave me a nice hay snack and cleaned my stall and then she groomed me. When she was done with that, she started putting my duds on. She didn't put my new Dressage saddle on - she put on my regular saddle that we've always used. That was good. I've only worn the new one once so I probably wouldn't have been as comfortable. Then she put her duds on. She wears special clothes when she rides me. I helped, poking her with my nose while she took off her regular pants and put on her riding duds. She kept grabbing at my lips while I did it. It was fun.
When we were all ready, she led me to the Round Pen. She lunged me first, all dressed up in my duds. She had tied the stirrups up with my pretty rope reins so they wouldn't bounce against my sides which was nice. I hate that. But I didn't really feel like doing much and she had to work to get me to trot. Finally she just decided to ride me.
So she put my rope reins on my bit and took the lunge line off. Then she got her stick and the bucket she uses to get on me. I'm pretty tall so my mom always uses a mounting block to get on me but there isn't one in the Round Pen. So what she does is she brings a bucket in with her. She puts it on the ground upside down and stands on it and that way she can reach the stirrup. But she ties a piece of hay string to the bucket handle and holds onto it while she's getting on. That way, she can pick up the bucket by the string and then ride me over to the fence so she can drop it outside the Round Pen. It's pretty clever.
I don't mind having my mom get on me but I've kind of forgotten what I'm supposed to do once she's there. I was never really sure about it and since we haven't ridden much for a long time, I'm even less sure. So at first it was kind of strange. My mom is pretty patient though and she just kept poking me in the sides with her heels and saying, "Walk on." That's what she says when I'm lunging and she wants me to walk but it took me a while to figure out that she wanted me to do it when she was on top of me.
Finally, I got sick of her poking me so I started walking forward and she immediately stopped kicking and said, "Good!" That was nice and I walked for a little bit and than stopped. So she started poking again and saying, "Walk on" and I eventually started walking again. Every once in a while she'd add a little tap with her stick too along with poking me with her feet and I'd eventually start to walk and she'd stop all her commotion.
I finally figured out that if I just kept walking, she'd quit poking at me so I did and that was pretty nice. I'd started out not really walking very straight or staying on the rail but she had my Cones set up and she sort of pushed me with her butt to make me go between them and the outside of the Round Pen and I figured out she wanted me to go in a circle just like she makes me when I lunge. So I started doing that and she seemed happy about it.
After I got better about walking nicely, she asked me to stop and then had me turn and go the other way. I knew how to do that. I do it all the time when we free lunge. Really, it was a lot like that only she was on my back. I was a lot better going the other way because by then I'd figured out what she wanted me to do. Now she started asking me to stop every now and then and I did. Then one time she asked me to back up. Well, I know how to do that. We back up a lot and I like to do it. It's a fun trick and I'm good at it. So as soon as she gave me a little pressure on my mouth and squeezed her legs and said, "Back up," I tucked my head right down and backed up a bunch of steps. She was very happy with me and petted me a lot when I stopped. I really liked that part.
It ended up being pretty fun. We just walked; we didn't do any trotting or cantering or anything. But it helped me to remember how I'm supposed to behave with my mom on my back and it was nice and relaxed and not stressful or anything. When we were all done, she asked me to stop again and petted me and then she got off and led me back to the barn. I was a really Good Girl about walking back. I felt pretty grown up, all dressed in my duds and stuff. Once I got back and she'd taken my bridle off, I had a good scratch on my face and then she gave me a couple of cookies. So that was good, too.
I think it might be nice to do more of that. After all, I am six now.
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