Sweetpea's First Ride with Us - January 2009

We rode Sweetpea for the first time this weekend. She has been hard to catch and wil only come to us when we have food. She is more trusting than she was but still wary.

After all, she was neglected for a long time. And then some cowboys caught her, slapped a saddle on her bony back and rode her to the point of exhaustion for a half day, leaving her with a saddle sore the size of a fried egg.

Her back is healed, she has gained quite a bit of weight but that wariness isn't going to go away over night.

So the hooftrimmer was Saturday morning (yesterday) and after, we trimmed her whiskers, ears and bridle path, straightened out her ragged mane and combed the knots out of her tail. She got a good brushing as well. She doesn't mind the attention at all.

Then we led her up front. She was nervous but obediant. We saddled her up using my lightweight Abetta Cordura. I swear by this saddle. It fits every horse I've put it on. It's simple to swap out cinches and change the stirrup length. It is so light and easy to handle.

Sweetpea stood still for the saddling and for the mounting as well. She was increasingly nervous. We used a simple egg butt snaffle on her to start. She was head fussy and gapped her mouth a bit on it but she stopped and turned well.

She is very pressure senstive under saddle and turns on a dime. She has a fabulous Corto and a decent Classic Fino, though she didn't shuffle, she can Fino slower than I walk. We didn't try her Largo as she is still a little nervous. We'll give her a few rides to settle down before we let her move out. She's very side sensitve and even stomach kicked once. She's got the wonderfully smooth Paso gaits but is not very collected. Peg enjoyed her smooth gaits for a few spins around the yard and then we let her graze as a reward.

After she gains a little more weight and I might ride her myself a few times to see what she does. But she is too small for me to ride her on a regular basis.

Interestingly, she is easier to catch today. Even coming up when you don't have food to see what you are doing. It could be she's been so terrified of being caught and ridden that when it happened she thought. "Oh that wasn't too bad." Hopefully her bad memories of the times before she came to us will fade in time.

I can honestly say, our horses don't mind being ridden too much. They are always eager to get in the trailer and go and you can catch them with a bridle in hand when they are in the pasture.