Sometimes it's just a struggle

I love riding, but sometimes it is just a struggle to get the motivation to "get back out there".

Yesterday, there was a big box in my mailbox, and yippee, it was tack for Red.
Beautiful biothane turquoise bridle, black/turquoise rope reins and a black/turquoise breast plate.

THAT was enough to motivate me and so I attached a bit, got Red, and started trying to fit it on him. It took awhile to adjust everything.

I love Biothane except that it is a pain to do the initial adjustments.

Finally I had everything basically rigged pretty well. I had also put the back cinch on the Plantation saddle and will have to make some more holes in the "keeper".

Aaah, time to ride! ah hemmmm. Red wouldnt budge, not even hand led. But in a few min. he changed his mind and walked along with me up to the top of the hill behind the house. I mounted, and he stood there, but soon he started walking nicely.

When we reached the alfalfa field, I let him have a bite, big mistake, he used that to whirl around and try and head for his buddies in the nearby pasture.

Once again, refusal, refusal, backing, backing, refusals. I had a crop with me and made myself totally relax and started wacking his butt as he backed. It didn't make any differance to him. We circled, backed, circled, whirled, etc. Nope, I was gonna win again tonight.

So off I went and led him across the road and back in to the woods, remounted and fought off another whirl. Soon he was walking nicely. My plan was to have a good ride-albeit a short one, so that he COULD have a GOOD time and KNOW that he would get back home at the end.

We reached the field and he attempted one buck and then took off at a nice gait. The 4 big white dogs cut across the field, but Gypsy, the Boston Terrier raced along behind us. I wish some one could have filmed it. It was hilarious to see that little fat dog racing full speed.

After we had gone a mile, I turned Red back around. Same picture, Gypsy RACING behind us and the big white dogs cutting back across the field. At the woods, I stopped Red to let him have grass, but he tried to get back on the trail for home. So I made him stand and wait for Gypsy.

Back on the home trail we headed for home with a couple of "turn arounds" to get at least a little bit of up-hill work in. We managed to do 3.36 miles in about 25 min. So not bad. We were out there for 50 min, so that shows you how much time it took me to get the boy "movin on".

But all in all we ended on a good note...not great for improving our conditioning for 25 miles, but at least we are keeping him from getting "soft".