G'day Bay - First Walk About

G'day Bay is 4 years old and a big Arab.  Today was the day for his Walk About under saddle.  He has been ponied maybe 4 times and is a lover boy.  I am always apprehensive about getting on a new horse for the first time.  I did have a video of him under saddle, but I was still scared as hell.  I cannot afford to get hurt and I don't heal quick anymore.  Anyway, I showed him the saddle and he did not even flinch so on it went. I am 6'1" and ride with a long stirrup, those stirrups did not come to the bottom of his belly.  I decided I would walk him away from the ranch so his Tucson buddy was not screaming at him.  So a walk about we went...   Before I even got on him he ended up jumping a couple of feet backwards, at what I do not know, just grazing my foot, luckily I had my boots on instead of my Jesus sandals.  Not a good OMEN...  I started to mount and put weight in the stirrups, everything was OK, so over the cantle came the leg.  G'day Bay was mouthing the bit something fierce.  I got off and checked the bit and he had his tongue over the bit..  So, we fixed that and I re mounted.  It was like he had no idea what to do..  This whole time I am thinking about getting off and which trainer I am going to take him to and how much money I will have to spend etc. etc.....  I am seriously going to bail if it looks like he is going to give me any grief at all.  I got him to move some, we did a few 50 foot circles, he would just stop and we would stand there for a couple of minutes.  I was not about to get after him other then a slight urging to go forward.  We finally worked it out by doing the circles and finally made it out to the road. He went through a scary gate, which he hardly looked at on the way back. We did about a whole 1 hour, and made it 3 miles, but we accomplished tons.  He did want to trot some and managed to maybe get in 12 or 13 feet, but I was determined to keep it at the walk for the first day..... He tried to sneak in a few trots here and there which actually I like....  Only had one other thing happen which I was ready for was a branch caught a little on my boot and scared him.  All in all a good day with G'day Bay