Have Patience or Never Make Assumptions

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to realize that gravity is going to work against two objects going different directions and that they are probably going to part company sooner rather than later. Yep I goofed. I got on Whisper when all the signs said it was a bad idea. And, yep. The signs were right. He bolted and I bailed. The dirt/sand/various organic materials in the arena are surprisingly soft.

I really can’t say exactly what happened. When I was grooming him I noticed his back seemed tender. But how could his back be sore? It’s not like he works that hard or carries much of anything around. I ignored it. It was a brisk windy day and the kids were racing around their pastures. Ignored that too. Proceeded to groundwork, then some jumping. He was a little excited and I dropped the lunge line at one point. Whisper exited the arena and headed for his pasture. I was happy he didn’t go far and calmly collected him. Did the usual drill – flapped the stirrup leathers, pulled on the stirrups, lined him up at the wall and leaned across the saddle. Nothing indicated his head was in a different place from the day before and I assumed…. So, I hopped on. As soon as my butt hit the saddle Whisper moved his – quickly and to the right. We made one large semi-circle ,missed the jump, then came to the parting of our ways. Whisper headed for his pasture and I went kerthud in a sort of sideways not quite belly flop. When the dust settled – literally – I hobbled over to Whisper who was telling his pasture buddies about his adventure and he stuck his nose out to say hi. Can’t beat a horse for understatement.

So, we’re back to groundwork and leaning on the saddle and such. He was very calm and well behaved today, responding well to gait cues including slowing to a walk. . He was a little nervous about lining up at the wall – he’d move his hindquarters away when I moved towards the saddle. So I just scratched his neck and he settled down after a bit and let me move back farther. I think I need to work a little more on his ‘whoa’ skills and hopefully that will translate when he’s under saddle. To that end I hope to have the person doing his first ‘real’ ride on him soon.