Two Horses; One Hour

Today I got to ride my friend M's horse Lark again.  Lark was the Canadian Warmblood that I rode on Sunday that I really enjoyed.  My friend M couldn't be at the barn for a few days so she asked me if I wouldn't mind exercising her for me.  She told me that I could simply lunge her if I didn't have time but that I was welcome to ride her.  Naturally, I chose the latter.

Well, Lark reminded me today of the difference between her (and presumably most Canadian Warmbloods) and Walker (and most Quarter horses) - mainly, the difference between a much hotter, spookier mare and an easy-going, dependable gelding.

First of all, M uses a dressage saddle on Lark.  Since almost all of the horses in our barn are Quarter Horses, none of the other saddles fit her. She is much broader in the shoulders than a Quarter Horse, and frankly she's one big chunk of horse!  Apparently, she is the same height as Walker, but when I'm on her, she feels HUGE.  Anyway, M has her own saddle for her for this purpose, this Wintec, which I'm officially in love with.  I have never ridden in a dressage saddle before Sunday, and I presume that they are all similar, but the deep seat is phenomenal.  Even when Lark is full out trotting, it is easy to sit the trot, and the seat combined with Lark's lovely rolling canter is so comfortable!

M claims that she simply bought this saddle because it was affordable, but I am easily persuaded by the power of suggestion

Anyway, when I finally figured out how to tack her up in this weird saddle (there's a reason I ride Walker Western...), I brought her into the arena and decided to hop on without lunging her.  After all, she had been ridden on Sunday like Walker and not turned out for two days like Walker, and I had no intentions of lunging Walker.  My mistake.  There were some dump trucks doing something at the top of the road, and they were crashing around very loudly.  That combined with my barn owner's husband popping out of nowhere with his truck and also banging around left me with a wildly spooky horse.  Her head was so high that I could reach out and touch her ears without leaning forward, and she was breathing furiously - like a dragon, as I often say.  She became irrationally terrified of what was on the other side of the gate to the outside world, and although I made every effort to walk her quietly near the gate, let her stand near the gate, look out over the gate, she was pretty much gone from my attention at that moment.  Her spookiness on top of her bottled up energy from being cooped up meant that I decided not to canter her.  I didn't have her attention on me and every so often she would crab step to the side or hop around like a lunatic.  Instead, I walked/trotted her around for 15 - 20 minutes (which is how long I intended to ride her anyway), hopped off, and decided to lunge the rest of the energy out of her.  When she was cantering around me, she was practically at a 45 degree angle to the ground and she kept spooking herself even then.  By the time I put her back in her stall, she was drenched in sweat although having only been out for about 30 minutes.  Needless to say, I think I fulfilled my duty of exercising her...

I forgot to get pictures of her tacked up - check out her beautiful long mane

Flash forward to Walker.  It is suppertime for him now and he is perturbed that I have him in crossties.  When my instructor walks by with the hay for his stall, he actually rips half of it out of her hands!  When I get his bridle on, he attempts to walk me into his stall where his supper is waiting for him, but I refuse to be deterred.  I take him into the arena, and the dump trucks are still pounding and banging away.  It is pouring rain and things are crashing up against the metal roof.  Walker barely pricks his ears.  After about 2 minutes, he realized that he had to listen to me in order to get his supper, and we had one of the best rides indoors that I've had in a long time.  He cantered fairly consistently, all on the correct leads, only one buck (admittedly probably rider induced - stupid spurs), and he even did one flying lead change (which is very difficult to do in the indoor arena - I just thought I'd test him since he seemed to be paying attention).  I cooled him off, brought him in, and he happily munched away at his supper.

All that being said, I really enjoyed riding Lark.  I think it's good for me to get used to a completely different kind of horse.  When I rode the other horse, Lucky, in my lesson, she was wildly similar to Walker (both trained Western Pleasure, both quarter horses, etc.), but Lark is nothing like him.  She's one of the aggressive mares at the barn who has to be turned out alone and who M won't even ride in an arena with another mare (hence why she loves riding with Walker and me).  She's clearly bred a little hotter and more forward than Walker, which can be both fun and mildly terrifying.  It's good practice to handle a horse like that because once you get her attention, like I did on Sunday, she goes so beautifully.  She's got some dressage tendencies and, well, Walker does not!  This way I get the best of both worlds.   I've already told M that I would be available whenever she needs someone to exercise her so hopefully I'll get the chance to do it all again.  Next time I think I may lunge her first...

Oh, and Walker, the lovely darling that he is, decided to roll in as much mud as he possibly could today.  In the 7 months that I've had him, he has never been this dirty.  He must have known that I was pressed for time today and decided to be a brat and make my life difficult.  Oh the joys of horse ownership.  I refused to put his new clean cooler on him after our ride - hey, I won that thing!  I'm not going to get it dirty on day two!

I'm sure it's difficult to see, but he's very dirty!

Also, note to self: take tail bag off of horse before riding.  Tail bag, when moved, makes the sound of a plastic bag.  Horse, when moved, whips tail around angrily.  Horse is afraid of plastic bags and will FREAK OUT that there is one chasing him.