Flat and Poles

Today we worked on flatwork and also rode over a "course" of poles. I started out on Barney. No, wait, I didn't ride Barney...

I RODE SPOOGENT! Tehehehehe. The word "spoogent" popped in my head while I was tacking up, so I decided to use it as a nickname for Barney. He pinned his ears a lot at me, so I kept on petting him and calling him Spoogent. 

So he's Spoogent from now on.

Riding Barney/Spoogent wasn't that bad. Teresa gave me a crop, and I used it when it was necessary. I can't always use my legs correctly, so it's always nice for me to have a crop as a helping aid. We walked and trotted and cantered with no problems, except that Barney/Spoogent was a little lazy when we went to canter. I mostly cantered one-handed with the crop behind my leg. The horses at the school's barn don't work off of leg alone, though, so I had to have my crop hand ready to give a rein aid. Nothing special happened while riding Barney/Spoogent. 

We did switch horses, though, and I got to ride my favorite little bugger, Bugsy. He's just so cute and soft and tiny that you have to love him. Teresa started messing with poles as soon as I got on Bugsy, though, and I was worried that I'd have to jump him. In our last jumping lesson of last semester, I seriously injured myself by NOT falling off of Bugsy. I just have difficulties jumping him, and I think it's simply because of our sizes. 

We just worked over a course of poles, though, which was fun. We cantered all of them and it was sort of like jumping a course. I had trouble seeing the last two poles, though, and I always had to make a sharp turn because I'd cut the corner thinking that they were a lot closer in. We made it though. It was fun, and I enjoyed riding Bugsy. 

I enjoyed riding Spoogent too. 

I want to ride Bugsy in the bareback lesson later this semester. He's fat and his withers don't poke out, so he'll be much more comfy than Stella, and he's tiny, which is good because I know I'll probably fall off at least once. A whole hour of bareback? Yeah. That, and my legs will fall off. I want to have a bareback lesson next week or something, because I can't wait until the end of the semester!