New and Old

Saturday was just an awesome, awesome day. Not only was it amazingly gorgeous out, but I had absolutely nothing planned except horsey stuff. My favorite. 

What. Why is there a saddle on me?

First up was a ride on Grady. I decided that this summer I'm going to get him a bit in shape so he can be a trail pony. He is doing great even being an old man at 26 years old this year! I can't believe he's so old, lol. 

I tacked him up in a saddle for the first time in almost two years, though we still didn't bother with a bit. I've ridden him plenty in those two years, but we always just go bareback. Because I'm lazy, I know he's not going to dump me unless I do something stupid and he's comfy to sit on.

Who you calling an old man?

Grady just cracks me up. He has mild arthritis, but other than that he is completely sound and feeling good! His arthritis is managed very well at this point with just a feed through joint supplement. Boy did he feel good. Colton and the neighbor's new horse insisted on galloping back and forth while I rode and Grady wanted to join! I did let him open up and gallop once but then insisted on a nice collected canter. Mostly though we just walked and did a little bit of jogging. At one point he threw a complete fit about not being allowed to canter, which I thought was amusing. Especially because his idea of a fit is to take a couple jig steps and toss his head.

Then it was Colton's turn. First up on the list of things to do was  a bath since he was quite filthy. Apparently it was his first bath ever since he thought it was quite terrifying. I turned on the hose (note that I wasn't even aiming at him yet) and he lost his poor baby brain. But with some patience he got over it. Just calmly spraying him, waiting for him to stop moving, then turning the hose off and praising him immensely for being such a brave boy. Eventually he was almost 100% fine with it. Plus it helped that he got to graze on the knee high grass that has overtaken my "bathing area".

Afterwards he was so nice looking! This picture doesn't quite capture his cleanliness. He looked like a fancy show pony!

Clean!

Looking like a fancy show pony

It's white!!

And then guess what we got to do?? First real ride! Well, not the "real, real" first ride since I introduce everything in steps and will add in the saddle and bridle later. But Colton walked and trotted with me on his back in the round pen and he was such a good boy. I was so excited. I thought I'd just walk around at first, since all I've done is just sit on him. But he was being so great - accepting my leg, walking when I bumped with my leg, turning away from leg pressure, bending nicely and steering/stopping nicely in the halter for such a green bean that I couldn't resist a trot. Just lifting the end of the lead rope like I was going to swing it was enough to send him forward and he has the same, easy to sit trot that Katy has. Even when he got going a little faster and I started bouncing along a bit (must do more work without stirrups!) he didn't get hardly worried at all - just flicked an ear back. I was so proud of him!