Mustang Saga

Take a look at my sexy horse! Wow, he looks good in his new gear!

Notice the English leathers. Although they're nylon, so it seems weird to call them leathers. I was going to try those so I could still ride in this saddle, since the buckles on the Aussie fenders hurt. My Woolback pad worked really well under the saddle, so I think I'll keep using that rather than buy an Aussie pad. The western breastcollar worked just fine too, woo hoo! I don't have to spend a bunch more money! But I may order an Aussie girth to get rid of the bulk of the converter and latigos.

The lesson today went a LOT better than last week. He was still pretty insecure at first, we had bad weather again. And that baby goat makes a very alarming sound when its "mama" Debi is not in sight! But he settled in and we did some more desensitizing. Lunged him at the walk, trot, and eventually lope... Took some doing to get that lope. I didn't ride today. Bummer. But Debi was very happy with him, and she helped me with a few things. Basically I need to be more patient when I ask him to do something scary (like walk past a pile of tires or onto a tarp surrounded by tires) and give him more time to think about it. But not eat grass. When he is checking out a scary thing on the ground and sneaks a bite, I'm to put him to work and then go back to it until he doesn't snatch grass.

It was a good lesson! I can't wait to work with him again. But I'm hurting all over for some reason, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have my new fenders by then. Those "leathers" just don't look very substantial...