Saddled Up and Ready To Go

So here we are. We're saddled up and ready at the mount and it's time to go for a ride. Oh yeah, but first I have to teach them to stand still so I can get on without them taking off before I get my foot in the stirrup. Gracie caught on to this quite quickly but good ole Dixie gave me problems with that. Oh yeah and lets not forget the day that I'm just sitting on Gracie's back, trying to teach her to stand still and she takes off to the barn with me and no reins to steer her with, only a lead rope. That proved for an interesting little ride as she sidled up to every fence she could bounce me off of saying "GET OFF ALREADY!"  Now, Miss Dixie is the back up expert........unless of course you ask her to. It took a bit of convincing, but we finally got better at it.

So I took some video to send to Julia, to show her what a great rider I was!  Bahaaahaa! I get this comment back from her!

You are a green as grass rider. Dixie is the perfect horse for you. What a good buy you made when you got her. 

The first place we will start is control. 

When you are riding dixie, you should only use the reins when you want her to change something that she's doing. 

The way you are riding her right now, it looks like you are hanging on to the reins for balance. You are always hanging on to her a little bit, just in case she might go faster than you want her to. 

When you tell your horse to go, don't be surprised when she goes. tell her what direction you want, and then let her go there. 

I'd like to see you turn loose of those reins (by that I mean, put some slack in them) for a few strides at a time. Get used to the fact that Dixie will carry you where you want to go even tho you are not micromanaging every step.

And now it is up to Julia to fix this problem! 

Well, I thought that perhaps Julia should meet Miss Dixie Doll in person, cause that horse is not what she appears to be, but man can she act for the camera! Yet of the two of them, yeah, I would trust Dixie on her back before I would trust Gracie, yet I wanted to show Julia that I wasn't totally backward when it came to Gracie, so I saddled her up one cold day and rode her up and down the road to show her that it could be done however sloppy it was. This was Julia's reply:

I am stunned!!!!

Totally blown away!!!

OMGosh, I love you!!! Will you marry me?

Yep, I'm on my way to being a Pro!  Just watch and see!

The Next Step

So now I can pick up their feet, and I can move them back and forth without getting run over so Julia has me to go to work teaching them to lead.  That all went pretty well with Gracie, but Dixie is part mule, I'm sure of it. She absolutely refused to move at times, and when she did she didn't get in any hurry about it.  But I persisted and she eventually came along.  I've got to tell you, I worked in the snow and the rain, and the mud. I was going to win at this no matter what.

Here's a little clip of me leading Gracie.

Now I go to teaching them to bring their butt to me at the mount so that I can get on them without using a ladder.  I amazed myself here.  There were times however that I was pretty sure I wasn't ever going to accomplish it and there was a time or two that I thought Dixie was going to completely mow me down before she finally gave into me.   Here's a little clip of me trying!  Teaching Dixie to line up at the mount. Well, Whoo HoOO I did it.  I actually got them both to line up and stand still for me!  I think I'm about ready to hop on and go for a ride.  Yes?! Well, not quite!