Riding/Horses

First Ride on Eeyore!

roamingridersite

Last night I swallowed my nerves, fiddled endlessly with tack, and eventually hopped on Eeyore for our first of hopefully many, many rides together.

And it went…..pretty good.

In 45 minutes I learned a lot about myself, him and my past experiences. There is a lot to say and a lot of thoughts to sort through, but today I just want to gush a little about my big goofy man.

He started out pretty worried about what was going on and called out to the Dynamic Duo several times. They never deemed it worthy to respond though and he quickly settled in. 

Because while he wasn’t perfect and I didn’t sit on him and magically start doing piaffes and jump around a 4* course, he never once made me feel unsafe, scared or nervous. He never once pulled a dirty move or became tense, hollow or braced. He never once spooked at anything, not even the pile of digging toys Wyatt had left in the arena that I was too lazy to pick up before mounting.

Sure he pulled hard to the gate and became a sloth going away from it.  Sure he tried to convince me he was unable to bend left while still actively bending left. Sure he put on a good show that he was exhausted after 20 minutes of walking. But even through his protestations about being asked to work after nearly two weeks of being a pasture puff and a light schedule preceding that, he did the thing. Sanely and with only minimal opinions that I suck.

Happy forward ears. I love the highlights in his mane. He is in Michelle’s PS of Sweden bridle and I like the dark brown on him but I still need to fiddle with the fit.

And that folks is a whole new experience for me.

I don’t want Eeyore’s life with me to degrade into a constant comparison with Gem. It isn’t fair to either of them as they are very different horses, but it will be inevitable in the beginning since Gem is my only experience to draw from. Where Gem’s answer to anything hard or new is to get hollow, tense and go fast, Eeyore’s response to most of life is to slow down, take it in and think about quitting. It was a refreshing new problem to find a solution to and while I didn’t cure it in one single ride there were a lot of glimpses of a lovely future admist this first ride.

Floppy donkey ears and a more relaxed neck about half way through the ride. 

After 45 minutes of a lot of walking and some trotting mixed in with a few “oops, this horse knows how to do a walk-canter transition when I accidentally pull my leg too far back” moments, I called it a night. He was sweaty, a storm was rolling in and it was 8 pm with dinner still needing made (of side note, if you haven’t made flat bread pizzas at home you really must. They are quick, easy and delicious!!! A hearty, filling home made dinner in 15 minutes) yet I didn’t actually want to get off him. On Tuesday evening, with my hot mess of a Gem, I had to force myself to stay on her and work through the tantrums keeping an eye on my phone until it was at least 30 minutes of ride time. last night though, I had to force myself to get off the horse. It wasn’t a perfect ride by any stretch and we weren’t making any ground breaking improvements, but it was fun. And safe. And everything I was wanting in my next horse.

I’m dying. And you suck. But please give me head cuddles and face scratches now. 

I have more thoughts on how it went and what all I learned about myself and Eeyore that will help me in the future, plus tack questions/issues and a plan for the near future with him but all that is going to wait until another day. It poured this morning and the weather says rain all weekend, but maybe I can squeak in another ride. I have a saddle fitter scheduled for June 2nd and a lesson with Trainer May 31 and a head full of dreams to start making reality. Eeyore may not be perfect, but he sure is perfect for me.

Published by roamingridersite

24 thoughts on “First Ride on Eeyore!”

  2. Woohoo!!! I’m so happy for you that you had a really successful first ride. Of course it will take both of you a little while to figure each other out and new horses always test us but what wonderful answers he gave to the questions you asked 🙂

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  3. I cant hit the like button enough on this post 🙂 YAY sorry if i am a bully and bullied you but arent you glad I did HA!. He is adorable. And welcome to a stock horse attitude. They are lazy but fun!! And he will get used to moving again and doing stuff. I am so glad you have a lesson next week. I think that is where it will really click!

    I am glad my bridle worked at least mostly. I love seeing the PS sweden on the monocrown from between his ears.

    I think you are going to have a BLAST with him honestly. That face is just so damn cute and his personality just oozes out of the photos.

    Hip hip hooray you made it onto him 🙂 UGH rain. yes its gorgeous here today but rain this weekend it sounds like. BUT I DONT CARE CAUSE MY HUSBAND IS COMING HOME TODAY 🙂 HA

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    1. Yay for hubby coming home!!!

      Sometimes I need a bit of a bully in my life to get me over myself.

      I have a lot to learn about him and his thought process but I jive well with him so it should smooth out as we go! I really need to remember he isn’t a 100 mile horse and can’t go forever. Poor guy was tired. Oops!

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  4. Yay! So excited for you! It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be exactly what it was. Fun and safe and leaving you not wanting you get off and grinning like a little kid! He’s adorable!

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  8. ❤ ❤ ❤ That's so great congrats!! Rides don't have to be perfect for you to have a good glimpse of what a horse is like or how things are going to be. I'm so glad you hopped on him – I love stock horse brains! He seems like the typical, chill stock horse guy lol

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