sigh

Tonight I actually saddled Memphis for the first time in a long time. Been weeks for him. I will say that he was calmer today than he had been in a long time. I'm not sure if it was just warm outside or if he just wasn't feeling too bad.

The good:

He saddled fine with the only balk being at me putting the saddle on. He stood still for saddling and lowered his head to take the bit. Worked on poles today at just a walk. He wanted to be a butt and stop randomly, but thankfully he just takes a slight tap with my heel to get him to move. He is also responding well to clicks and clucks.

I stopped the ride when he did a small run walk for me and stopped when I said woah. I'm trying to keep the lessons short for right now since he hasn't done anything in almost 5 weeks. I want to instill a few basics and then stop. Sunday's ride will be about 10-20 minutes longer than the 15 I put into him today.


The bad:

He had a bad fall today. :( I was lunging him before I rode him to get out some of his kinks. (I am in the lunging before riding if you haven't ridden in awhile) He tried to bolt... which is not good because we were in an enclosed space with not much room. I yanked his head too late and he lost his balance and fell.... hard... he hit the stall with the pony in it hard. (the barn he is in is huge. the stalls are on the outside walls and there is a large soft tilled dirt in the middle. Not big enough for a horse to go too crazy, but large enough to get some work done) He hopped back up pretty quickly, we walked for a few minutes to see if anything was hurt and then I moved him on the line to see if he was acting gimpy. He seems fine. But that still doesn't not make me feel horrid. I shouldn't have yanked his head but I was afraid he would bolt into the barn doors...