Blu’s first week at Todd’s

Todd called me about 8pm Monday night to say that Blu trailered very well.  He never felt him move.  A nice solid rider.  Yeah!  And Blu will probably be happy because it’ll be a while before he trailers alone again!

I tried really hard not to be a pesky client calling every day to find out how he was doing.

Really hard.  I made it until Wednesday.

Todd let me know that Blu was truly green broke.  I think he used the term “green as a gourd” which caused me to laugh.  From Todd’s conversations with Nicole he knew a few things to keep an eye on.  Mounting was one thing.  Since he’d only had a dozen rides or so, mounting was still new to him.  I was starting to get an idea why Nicole walked alongside me when I first got on Blu. 

The first couple rides were probably interesting for Todd.  What we've figured is that Blu came from a barn that was all indoor, with a 12x12 box stall, and he was ridden in an indoor round pen or arena.  Because he was a trainer’s horse (vs a client’s horse) he probably didn’t get worked as much as a client’s horse might have been.  Compare all that to his new situation.  He’s now in an outdoor barn, meaning his stall door (a ½ door) faces a covered aisle and he can stick his head out the stall and look at the other horses in the aisle.  His stall has a paddock, so he can be outside if he wants.  And Todd’s arena is an outdoor arena without a cover.  It looks over a valley, other paddocks, bushes, and such.  “Eye candy” as Todd called it.  Lots of things for Blu to look at.  And of course, he’s in a new place, has new people coming to see him, feed him, ride him. 

Anyone would be a bit antsy.

Todd told me he was a bit “humpy” which I didn’t totally understand until that weekend when I watched him ride.  And he was fast.  He didn’t have a lope yet, he was still cantering.  And for clarification, a canter is a much faster version of the lope.  Riding English I used to canter.  Now that I’ll be riding Western I’ll be loping.  Similar to the Trot vs the Jog as they are English/Western also.   Basically the Western movements are much slower and have lower movements so they are smoother to sit (ideally).

But since I’m very new to Western riding as it pertains to showing I’m sure I’ll be learning more and may even look back on this post and laugh at myself.  Who knows!

So, week one Todd let me know was spent riding Blu, getting to know him, and working him slowly, so as not to frighten him.  The goal will be to keep Blu happy, and not scared.  A scared horse is much harder to re-train than to keep him from getting scared in the first place.

My next conversation with Todd was more about our plans to come down that weekend.