At Last!

Finally rode on Saturday for the first time since the crash :) Started with a tiny bit of lunging, as Red was very tense and all 'pent-up,' though as the ground was still quite hard just let him walk around all relaxed to let him stretch out so he wouldn't be all knotty and grumpy and horrible when I got on him.

Well he was, in the typical Red fashion, a pain to get on; there was me foolish enough to think he would stand still at the mounting block! 'No, let's swing my arse out and make this as difficult as I can!' Good old Red :) Though once away from the mounting block after several attempts of getting him to stand still (he likes to go into Join-Up mode for some reason when I walk towards him to get on lol) I finally managed to hop on, and it was VERY strange at first haha. I could have sworn Red never used to be that wide...

But once I was on he was a gentleman, well most of the time. He wasn't too keen off my leg, which was probably a good thing though it did mean a lot of squeezing with my feeble little legs lol. We walked around the menage for a fair while, managed to get some bending out of him, at least with my good leg anyway lol. And he also did a few tiny steps of shoulder-in and leg yielding, though obviously at this stage this was a mess. Then had some trots and things, very good here too, though when circling it was very clear actually how unbalanced he was, he was very leany around the corners and when this happened he started rushing. So maybe that's something I'll work on, but we'll get there :)

His only chestnut moment was when I didn't allow him to move forwards enough in the walk to trot transition; the trouble is with him he often does a few strides of really hoppy bouncy walk before he goes into trot, which is very frustrating when you want a nice clean transition. So while trying to avoid this, he got even more frustrated and started cantering with his head down, and then changing his front legs a few times :| What can I say, he is a strange beasty.

But yes, on the whole I was very pleased with the little man, he was impeccably behaved considering he's not been in regular work for, well about 3 + a half months. He's just so hairy. Just as well he won't be working hard til the Spring, hopefully his condition will improve then :) and I'm pretty sure I've bored you enough now, lol :) Thankyou to all those who have followed mine and his progress over the past few weeks and months, it all really starts here I guess :)



.xo