Good Girl Cindy! Good Girl!

L.M. is getting some strokes from his momma

Don't forget the Praise!

When we are dealing with children, and dogs... and men, we've learned that praising a job well done, often leads to less struggle with future jobs.   Okay, that works with children and dogs...  not nearly as well with men.  But my POINT is, horses react equally well when they're told they are doing a good job.

L.M. is no different.   Last night I was out ahead of Lisa, and started the chores before her arrival.   One constant around the stable, is the "Good boy, SUCH a good boy" snippets of conversation floating over the fences and through the stable walls.  

What you DON'T expect as a Greenhorn do they even USE that term anymore?  or am I stuck in some John Wayne movie dialog? is the fact the horses DO want to hear it.   Every time Lisa asked the boy to do something, and he did it.. he'd move forward for the loves and praise.   That is pretty frick'n awesome!  You know what would be cooler yet?   If when YOU need praise, it was simply a matter of walking over to your 'praise'er' and bump em with your nose..  yeah, if THAT worked.. that'd be awesome.

Good Job for stopping Mister!

Gearing UP!

Last night we moved towards saddling L.M. up.  We did this for a variety of reasons, the first and foremost, so I understand the equipment and how to use it.  

I'm pretty full of questions about saddles (western, versus aussie, versus roping), and sizes (15 or 17?  who knows).  Why we have a bit?  Why we don't.   Lisa is amazing.   Just as an FYI, Lisa bought an Aussie 16, and L.M. doesn't like a bit.

I also learned how critical it is to have the saddle fit not just the rider, but the horse.  A too-tight saddle can do muscle damage to a horse, and improperly geared probably feels a whole helluva lot worse with a rider on it, than us flopping the girls into a misfitted underwire bra which we ALL know we can never quit tugging at.   Point taken!  If I ever get a horse, someone very knowledgeable will be helping me outfit it.

Climb aboard Cindy!

One of the amazing things about Lisa, is she won't allow me to simply sit back and watch.   Although it's HER horse and HER time.. she insisted on getting me in the saddle.   And just like LM.. when Lisa tells me to do something, I DO it.

First, I attempted to get in the saddle from the ground.  Although I'm certain it wasn't pretty, the attempt WAS successful.   Thank you 30" inseam.

LM and I did our walk-abouts.  We meandered into corners and back out again.  We bumped the ball around the arena for awhile.   By this time, he was MUCH less concerned with the mower contraption he'd been leery of earlier with Lisa..  We even took a stroll over the mini-bridge a couple of times.   All good.

But after watching her trot with him, I too wanted to know what that felt like. 

Cindy gets the trots!

So I try the noise.. you know, the noise that tells a horse 'giddyup, let's trot'?  Yeah, that noise.   I can't make it.  Or I'm speaking Sharpei and not Arabian.. whatever the case.   Nothing happens. 
Well, that's not true.  Lisa looked at me funny.   As does LM when I try to make her kissing/encouraging noise and she says 'are you TRYING to get him to trot? 

Ah HELL.  If I can't get a 35 year old human that speaks English to understand me, how the heck can the 4-legged companion figure it out?   Yes Lisa, I want him to TROT!! 

LM doing his community service

ALRIGHTY THEN.  Lisa immediately put us on the lead, made me lay down the reins, and and began the process of taking me around in circles.   LM was less than amused.    Lisa gave me a brief breakdown on which muscles I'm supposed to be using to stay in the saddle.  I feel like a relatively large paddle ball, minus the string, but by gosh, we TROTTED!  HOLY HORSESHOES!  WE TROTTED!

Lisa was full of encouragement.  I was doing well, my posture was good.. i wasn't slapping around near as much as I felt like I was.    

We determined the saddle was a bit large for me... I was almost up on tiptoes trying to lock my thighs under the things flanking the saddle horn.   Apparently heels are supposed to point down.   I was supposed to clamp my thighs to the horse...  These thighs are more drawn to each other.. but at the end of it, I knew I was doing okay when we finally got off the lead and began to work together, without Lisa having to call out ALL the directions to LM.

And Mike came out and said something about needing to learn to Post next.... and as we wound up our ride.. Lisa shouted out "GOOD GIRL Cindy, GOOD GIRL!"   

See?  that praise works on all of us :)  She just didn't have to pat me on the head!  We saved those for LM :)