Bareback Riding Adventure

Yesterday was sunny and warm(ish) with of gentle SE breeze (not gale force for once) so I decided to ride Stretch after I'd done the barn chores. I was in a lazy mood so opted for bareback instead of having to get the saddle out, brush him off, lift the saddle up, etc, etc. So I put his bridle on, my helmet on, grabbed my step stool and then went out searching for an "easy" place to mount. AHA! The side of the deck of the cabin is relatively high so I figured if I put my stool on that I'd be able to just walk him up alongside and then get on him without any dribbles. Unfortunately Stretch didn't share my enthusiasm for this plan. I walked him up beside the deck. He stood like a statue. As soon as I'd get up on my stool he'd ever so slightly move his body far enough away that I couldn't get on. I repositioned him and tried it again. Same result. We kept trying but weren't successful so I decided to change locations. Off to the riding ring we go.

I walked him up beside the fence. Once again, he stood like a statue. I stepped up onto the first fence board and Stretch still stood there. Then I had to figure out if I needed to go up one more board or whether I'd be able to mount from the lower board. I decided to turn around to face Stretch (at this point I had my pixie to him) and see what level I was at compared to his back. It may sound like an easy task to just turn around, but when you're balanced on top of a 1" board desperately hanging on so as not to fall and startle your horse, life becomes a wee bit more complicated. I decided to go up one more board and THEN try the turn around manouver. I managed to get about half way around and decided to get on him anyways because I was at a great level. And it worked! I was up and on. Let the fun begin!

Stretch is a pretty rough fellow to ride so I can only go as fast as a walk when I'm on him bareback. When I ride Skipper bareback I can actually lope on him because he's like a big comfy couch. My riding ring was full of puddles so I decided that we'd work on getting Stretch over his fear of stepping in them. Slowly but surely I managed to get him to step into one of the puddles and stop so that he could see it wasn't going to eat him. He put his head down and played in it for a bit, had a wee drink and then we continued to walk to the other side. We repeated this numerous times until he'd walk right into the puddle. Same drill each time though - we'd stop, he'd play and then off we'd go. I figured I'd end it all on a good note and walk him right through the puddle. NOT! He figured the drill was to walk in, stop, play, and then leave. It just amazed me how quickly he'd learn a new routine. I thought it'd just be common sense to know you had to walk THROUGH the entire puddle. It really reinforced the idea that repetition is the method of learning for our horses - good habits or bad!

After our puddle training we just hung out in the sunshine doing absolutely nothing. It was wonderful!

Stretch is such a good boy. Sounds like you had fun. So many horses are so full of themselves first of the year after the winter.
You're a brave one girl. Keep having fun. There's still ice in my riding paddock, but I'm hoping it will mostly be gone after the
rain the next couple of days.

Love your description of your adventure. Felt like I was right there. I guess it is because we all have this common "thing" with horses so that we can envision the smells, the feelings, etc.

I too had a little wee bareback ride on a most filthy horse I might add. He seems to be trying to see just how wet and drippy he can get....must be trying to get the shedding done and overwith.

As for learning routines, you are dead on. It is we who have to remember that they will learn the bad ones as well as the good and just cannot differentiate between the two. I am still "kicking" myself about getting my horse to bend every which way to get a piece of carrot. I thought it was great when he would stretch.......even down between and back of his knees. The problem is, I find he has become a tad pushy about the whole thing. Back to getting carrots out of the feed dish for Mr. Horse.

Great story Tammy! Glad you had a good ride! Makes me itch to just jump on Teeka bareback. Her lope is too choppy for bareback too, but her jog is a dream!
...:::***Wendy drifts off into a bareback daydream at work...***:::...