Crappy New Year

Okay, I'm being dramatic, but my first ride of the New Year left me a bit miffed.

Trainer T was away at a show this past weekend, so my 11am Saturday lesson got moved to 8am on Sunday. I figured I would just ride Fuego at my usual 11am time. Then I woke up on Saturday and stayed lounging in bed until about noon. And then I had other things to take care of during the afternoon, so I hurried through those and dragged my feet to the barn around 4pm. I actually don't mind riding later in the day, especially if I can hit "golden hour" as it makes my content just a little more dreamy.

When I pulled Fuego out of his stall, I quickly noticed that he ripped off his shoe (again) and was a little touchy. Last time this happened, he was fine, so my radar went off, and I checked his leg for any heat or swelling. No heat, so I told Trainer T's kid about it, and she said he'd be ridden earlier in the day and would be okay on the arena footing. I shrugged it off and opted for a quick bareback ride while the sun set.

I threw his bridle on, did our usual photoshoot, and then walked out to the arena with him. He can get upset on the walk to the ring, so I preferred to do it from the ground just in case he had it in his mind to dump me. This was also my first ride in a new pair of boots which proved to be a risky decision while mounting. They were stiff as a board, and Fuego is huge, and the mounting block was on the shorter side. So as I was making a rough attempt to get on the horse, something had him concerned, and he started moving forward with me hanging on the side.

Something that gets me about Fuego is that if I rode a horse like him a couple years ago, I would have been scared out of my mind. And I would have been incredibly conservative about what I wanted to do with them. For some reason or another, he has me thinking differently. I'm willing to try anything with him. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, then okay, we'll try something else or we'll try it differently. On the one hand, I'm definitely worried about over-facing him, but there's nothing wrong with bringing a horse to water and seeing what they'll do. They might drink, they might swim, they might pull back and break the crosstie that you just purchased. Ya never know.

So, yeah, he spooked as I was getting on and took some half-hearted canter steps before realizing that whatever I was trying to do required more attention. He stopped himself, I got situated, and off we were.

And he was lame.

The end.

And if it wasn't clear, yes, he broke another cross tie. I love this horse.