First Ride

Friday, 1/7/2011:

Ambrose has not been here all that long but I have not ridden him until today. How he does under saddle is the least of my concerns.  I am more concerned about his soundness and his train ability.

Yesterday was a fun day watching him in the arena, he is a big powerful athletic horse.

I worked with MONK this morning, actually afternoon.  It is cold and foggy here today.  The fog come up from the lake and engulfs the ranch dropping the temperature by quite a bit.  I actually cut his pony short as it was so cold and my hands could hardly work.

I was more then a little apprehensive about climbing on Ambrose and put it off as long as I could.  So I finally bit the bullet and went out and got him out of the pasture.  I have one horse that wants to bite Ambrose bad and surprisingly enough will do it while I am leading him so we had to dodge him on our way to the barn.  I groomed Ambrose a little, don't think his tail has ever had all the knots taken out of it.  I did not have enough time to spend on doing the whole tail so did what I could and led him out to the trailer where the tack was.

Tack went on without a hitch, adjusted the bit, put on my helmet and looked for a safe place to mount.  I decided on a little pasture area with a slight uphill to it, it should probably have the softest landing around in case I dismounted involuntarily.  As soon as I got the leg over the saddle he was in motion.  Got situated and after a few circles went for a little walk.  We walked away from the ranch for maybe 1/4 mile before I decided to turn him around.  As soon as I did he decided he wanted to go home, and I decided that I wanted to get off...  My goal being accomplished I did find a nice place to dismount while he was in motion and we walked back to the barn.

Another good day with Ambrose.  Not exactly sure what I am going to do next about the under saddle part, but have lots of options.