Engaging the Lazy - Rider Edition

I don't normally ride on Mondays. I like to give Walker a day off, but I also like to give myself a day off. I had already succumbed to giving myself a day off on Sunday, and then I found out I had an appointment Tuesday. I decided that I should stop being a lazy butt and ride my horse Monday anyway.

I'm glad I did because I was sooo proud of him. And I was also proud of me. And I say this all with the knowledge that at one point, he would not stop when I asked him to and kept careening around the arena. Apparently we need to work on our breaks.

The ride started off just as lazy as usual, but I started my transitions and changing directions and really got Walker moving out. This is why I was so proud. It was by far our best trot in a very long time, and since it was 100% rider-initiated (for a change...), I would go as far as to call it the best trot we've ever intentionally done. He was really extending those legs of his and just careening around the arena. He even had a nice forward canter - not as impressive as his trot, but an A for effort.

We only did that for about 40 minutes because he was drenched in sweat pretty quickly. I then decided to cool him out bareback. I drug his saddle off and then couldn't seem to reposition him in a way to make it easy to mount so I mounted from the right instead. Walker didn't care.

I started just walking since we were cooling off and then decided to trot for the hell of it. BIG MISTAKE. He thought I still wanted him to do that big trot, and remember where I said that he had no breaks last night? Yeah. He starts flying around the arena and I start sliding menacingly towards the wall. I signal him to stop but he was like, "No way, human. Check out my trot. Continue to be proud at how I work for you." So I'm now sitting at a 45 degree angle grasping the mane and thinking to myself, "Thank god I never got around to trimming this!" By the time we got to the gate, he slammed on the breaks and I could almost feel the smile inside him as if he was saying, "I done good, right?"

I mean, Walker is 15.2 hands high and normally doesn't have a trot. How do all you crazy people ride your humongous bouncy trotters bareback? I have a new appreciation for your plight.

Oh and as an addendum to my post yesterday about tail bags: buy material that is not slippery or that your horse can't easily tear off and leave in the sawdust for you. Oh, who am I kidding. Don't even bother! Horses be destroying everything.