Last Week - Riding with Tania @ Fultonvale

Time to catch up on my blogging again. I've been riding Skittles tons lately, but just haven't blogged any of it. I do want to write about my ride last week at Fultonvale with Tania though. She came with Jack. I rode Skittles, but I also brought Sherlock. It was kind of last minute decision. He was standing at the gate and looked so eager to go do something, so I decided to load him up just so he could have some fun and associate the trailer with something other than a trip to the vet! So once we got there, I tied him up next to Skittles for a bit, groomed him along with her, picked his feet, etc., then turned him loose in the arena. It was interesting how protective of him Skittles was. She made a point of keeping herself between Sherlock and Jack as much as possible.

After riding around a bit and having Sherlock frolicking around, it became apparent that the little guy was going to be more trouble than he was worth! So we ended up moving him to the small corral at the end of the arena and let him trot around there (photo). At first Skittles didn't want to leave him and kept trying to turn back to that end of the arena. I let her circle at that end for a while and slowly built the circle until we were able to ride at the other end as well. She settled relatively OK. Although there was one point when I asked her to canter while we were turning away from Sherlock and she objected. I asked harder and she bucked and turned back at which point I found myself on my butt on the ground! After that Skittles got to canter online for a few minutes and once I got her back focussed on me, I got back on. After that, she didn't have any issue with riding away from Sherlock.

Tania - on the other hand - was spectacular! She impressed the socks off me by showing me how Jack could walk, trot, canter, turn and even spin with only a savvy string around his neck! I bow to the master! WOW! I took a couple photos with my phone, but it's a bit far, so you can't tell she's only using the string, but she was! I was SO IMPRESSED! What an inspiration.