Day 3... Success

Brantley and his friends at Cherry Croft... Yes I feel bad.

On Sunday I made my way to Cherry Croft again and as I was stuck in URI Graduation traffic, I thought about how excited I was to bring him home. I made my way up the path once I got the farm and brought B down to the indoor. I jumped all over his back, then brought him to the Jeep to tack him up. I got to use my own saddle which I was happy about (although CB's saddle is way more comfy). Latching the round pen gate behind me, I went into my pony-mode where I look really serious but I'm just focused. I stepped up in the stirrup a few times on both sides, rubbed his shoulder, the saddle, moved the stirrup, scratched his hindquarters, then got down. Saw K pull up in the corner of my eye which was exciting. I needed a cheerleader and she is probably the best.

Going through Brantley's routine, I started to feel more comfortable. I had to tighten the cinch more than twice since he's lost a bit of weight (not something I can't fix). We flexed on both sides, I sent him around the pen, got up on the wall and stood in the saddle. Then it was time to ride. It was just as good as the day before and I felt even higher. On a scale of 1-10, I'm a 13.5. K took some awesome pictures as always.

After my ride I went to CT with S to look at another Arab. I got the whole western saddle glare (tested her out for S) and not enough contact. Blah blah blah, horse was calm and quiet and listened to my cues. I was happy and I loved her. We'll see in a couple of months when S is ready to bring ponies to her new place.

Met up with K and we trucked over to Jamestown to get the trailer and then towards Cherry Croft. We thought maybe, just maybe the traffic on 138 wouldn't be as crazy... But an hour later we turned around in the college farm and took off through S. Kingstown and raced to Charlestown. Loaded my pony up in the rain and made our way home.

Today I was on a spit shift at work so I had about 3 hours to get all my chores done and ride Brantley. Of course, there wasn't enough time to walk over to Tavern to use their round pen so I pulled on my cowgirl jeans and worked him in the indoor. I went through all of our routine that I could do, missing out on standing on him which is kind of a rush as you're staring at the ground. Halter and lead in hand, I finally mounted. We loped around most of the time and going in one direction other than right was difficult but it didn't matter to me. As long as he was calm, cool, and mentally collected, I didn't care where he went. A boarder was making a ruckus out in her trailer which he was kind of weary about, but I just pushed him back up into a lope and we were good. Day 3 complete. We'll see what tomorrow brings!