Today we ventured out for our riding lesson in Monroe, where my trainer works. Up to today, she had come to my place for lessons. Now I’ll go to her, with the benefit of trailer practice and adjusting to new places for DG and me. I was quite confident all would go well, given our positive experience traveling to Bridle Trails the week before. All did go very well trailering. When we got to the barn, the energetic environment of the training arena did get DG a bit zippy.
“You can lunge her for a bit, if you want,” suggested my trainer.
A very good recommendation, indeed. But did I anticipate this and bring my equipment? No…I didn’t think she’d be so high, given how calm she was last week. Live and learn.
Lunging for about 30 minutes finally settled her down, after some impressive crow hops and such, and we were able to get some very good riding in for about another 30 min. Then DG was toast! Many thanks to my trainer for being positive and reassuring. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit concerned about DG’s acrobatics.
There is a great deal to be said about logging in “firsts” with a green horse. It makes the seconds, thirds, fourths, etc, much much easier. And the more confident I am, the more confident DG will be, and vice versa. Onward!
