Lightness...in the Wrong Places! (and contest!)

Friday went on a little trail ride. Weather has cooled down and River has been super spooky (for him); usually he just stops and stares and snorts at whatever-is-scary, but he's been putting in a few leaps and crouches lately too. But it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed it anyway! He seemed to relax as we were heading home, and was much nicer to handle afterwards.

Saturday another short bareback trail ride. He is so trippy. He probably stumbled over 95% of the roots out there. Reading Andrea's blog today and I hope he comes around like O has! I expect it's a combination of his lack of overall fitness along with the fact that he's probably never spent much time on trails before. Only one way to fix that!

Today went out and rode again, in the paddock by the barn. Decided to just do a walk ride and focus on my position and building some of his basics without getting him flustered and leaning on my hands. So I dropped my irons and did some no-stirrup a while, picked them up again, and worked on baby leg yields, halts, and backing. I really focused on my own intentions and "feeling" what I wanted, and he was super, super good! So I went on to work on going faster and slower in walk, and that's where it all collapsed...

I asked him to move up, still in walk, and he did, we were walking along calmly one minute, and the next...

 

Minus the dramatic rear. But he leaped about six feet sideways and I found myself somehow hovering in the air...how does that happen anyway?! I always end up suspended in midair somehow, like gravity quits working or something...

ANYWAY my first thought was WHERE IS THAT STINKIN' MANE?!?! and the second was Oh shoot I can't reach it! Don't ask me how I got back in the saddle, but I did, and actually didn't fall. Some kind of miracle. Looked around and couldn't see a thing, he was snorting and getting all excited though, so I told him to walk on and he did. He was spooky at the little culvert alongside the paddock (that, for the record, we'd walked by probably at least a dozen times NBD), so I made him walk past it several more times just to reinforce that no boogie monsters lived inside.

He calmed down somewhat and we had a nice end to our ride. But I don't think I want to practice that kind of lightness again! ;)

Sleepy pony would never do such a thing...

Oh and check out Hillary's contest! Good-smelling saddle soap just sounds awesome!

EDIT: We are also Haynet's Blog of the Day today! New post introducing them to anyone who doesn't know, shortly. :)