Arrived at the Driggs arena with Sara and Smooch to find that a barrel racing club has the arena booked on Thursday evenings. So I decided to stay and use the rest of the fairgrounds. It actually worked out pretty well. So I sacked out Smooch while I tested Sara's new cinch. After about half an hour on Sara, I saddled Smooch and headed over to the trail course. Smooch is still a little unsure of himself, so I eased into the obstacles letting him investigate and sniff them out at his own pace. We had a little difficulty with the bridge. He's gone over them before, but not while I was riding him. So I got off and led him over. Got back on and it took a few minutes before I was able to ride him over. It was after this point that he decided he was going to refuse to cooperate. Not that he was afraid of the bridge or that he thought he couldn't go over it, he just flat out refused. He even tried to take off on me and reared a few times. He is still small enough that it is hard for him to rear 200 pounds on his back. So I disengaged his hind end and he quickly figured out that I was in charge. After that he went over all of the obstacles with no arguments, including the bridge. He had calmed down a lot but was still a little apprehensive. Every time we would turn back towards the truck he would break into a trot. An easy way to work on speed control was that every time he would break into trot, I would point him at an obstacle and that would slow him down. Before too long I had the basics of speed control down. He has a nice little trot. So we rode around the fairgrounds, and into the warm up arena with all of the barrel racing folks. Chatted a while with some of the parents while I alternated making Smooch stand still and walk around the arena. Then I headed over to the trail course one more time before unsaddling and loading them up for the trip home.
If I can make every ride this summer as productive as this one, I will be well on my way to having a broke colt by this fall.
I think Saturday will be a ride through the fields from my house.
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I just want to say I'm glad you decided to train Smooch yourself. I think you absolutely have what it takes, and you are going to learn so much in the process. :-)
So when I'm out riding on the road tomorrow in the hot hot California sun I will be wishing I was up there trotting my fat little horse around the green fields instead!
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