Back in the Saddle

That's where you have to get when you fall out.

Took Kahlua out this evening ... saddled her up and rode her straight out from the house.  She hates that.  She's a bit barn sour, or whatever you want to call it.  I hate that term because I don't have a barn!  And I want one really bad!  Pasture-sour sounds stupid.  Itty-bitty-piece-of-land-sour sounds stupid, too.  Spot-next-to-the-driveway-sour.  There.  That's better.

Anyway ... mounted her, and she immediately wanted to walk back to her pasture.  Silly girl.  Up on to the canal we went.  Got down to the neighbor's house, and she balked.  I persisted.  So did she.  I dismounted and continued walking.  I don't think she expected that.  I felt silly walking the horse.  Got to the road and remounted.  Went up the road (instead of continuing on the canal where I am not comfortable arguing with her), and entered into the undeveloped major failure of a subdivision. 

In the subdivision, the road goes in, and then turns into a circle around a cute planted area that's about 50' in diameter.  So ... like a merry-go-round, I was going to use it as a training area.  We go around the first time, and she balks at the "exit" area.  I persist, and make her go around again.  She balks at the exit again, only this time, she loses her footing in the rear because she was trying to back up.  She ends up in a sitting position and tries to get up and slips again.  I bail.  She falls over a bit before recovering.  She's fine, I'm fine.  I remount, and we go around a couple more times with more success before heading out.

At the end of the road, she wants to turn back to the house, and I make her go the other way.  She balks.  I persist.  I was going to turn on the first road, but since she balked, I went to the next road.  The whole time, her head is pointed at my house.  While I'm proud of myself for getting out and doing this and forcing this issue, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know if what I'm doing is helping, if this issue will ever be resolved, or whether I should even bother.  One thing I will say is ... I have been dying to ride around my neighborhood ever since I bought my house.  There is no better way to check this out.

We get down to the irrigation canal ... and head toward the house ... finally!  We are clip clopping along, when we get to an area where the water white-waters, even though the canal bank itself does not change width or anything.  She would not walk past it.  She so didn't want to pass it that I let her do what she wanted to see what she would do.  She turned around and started heading away from the house!  LOL!  Anyway, I dismounted again, walked her past it, and then remounted.  Turned her around to go by the white-water thing again, and there was no way she was going to do it.  I headed home.

Anyway ... it was a good experience overall.  Riding out from here, especially alone, is a different ride than if I trailer her somewhere.  My elbow is a little sore from where I ate it, but I'm none the worse for wear.

When we got back, I had her help me carry her granny food down to the feed bin.

She was happy to help.

Oh, and by the way ... there's another saddle I will be getting back into on Monday morning.  A new job!  I couldn't be more excited!

J