Whisper’s First Ride

Well, not exactly his first but I’d venture to say it was his best. I would recommend Tall to anyone. He took the time to ask about Whisper’s background and get to know him, do some groundwork first without the saddle then with, and eventually become Whisper’s newest bestest friend.

The day started out with Whisper being Whisper. We did some groundwork in the morning. He did pretty well but was jumpy. We introduced a new exercise hoping he would concentrate and settle down a bit. This met with marginal success. I put him back in the pasture and ran home for lunch. An hour later I was back at the stable tacking him up for his big adventure. In the middle of this the mare and foal who were occupying the round pen we were going to use were brought into the stable. The foal came trotting up to make Whisper’s acquaintance. Visions of Whisper meeting Skylar at EOI came rushing back. Whisper was terrified of Skylar and there was a fence between them. I expected an immediate meltdown. Amazingly he merely looked at her and stood quietly while she danced around. He continued to stand quietly when she came back a second time. It was time to move to the round pen.

Tall went through groundwork, unsaddling, more groundwork, saddling, putting weight in the stirrup, putting weight on the saddle, up, down, up, down. And then the rains came. It was downright boring and I’ve never been so happy to be bored. There was no drama, few hysterics, and the drama queen was banished at least temporarily. When Tall got on, Whisper just stood there while he rubbed and bounced and rubbed some more. When he got him moving it seemed he only had a reverse gear. Whisper can back up straight. He can back in circles. He can practically do figure eights going backwards. It probably took 20 minutes of stopping, starting, getting on and off, circling, a little spooking, and finally a couple of slaps on the butt with the ends of the reins before the light bulb lit and he moved more or less forward. The first couple of circuits were done in a beautiful sidepass. After that he moved forward first at a trot then a walk. As the video shows he’s almost like a different horse – his head is down and he looks calm and happy. Funnily enough when Tall tried to back him after this it seemed he’d forgotten how to go backwards. We all decided that’s just fine for now. Once again Whisper has validated everyone's faith in him. I firmly believe he can do this.