New Adventures, Part the First

Last week, I took advantage of some very generous offers by barn mates to take lessons on different horses. One of my goals this year was to ride 10 different horses and when people hand you the reins to impeccably trained personal horses, well, you don't say no.

especially not to this face

The first was this lovely mare from last week. She's completely adorable and basically perfect. I've seen her go a lot of times and always just assumed she was your "typical" stock-type paint that was a little bit dull.

Not so.

meet Cocoa!

She is absolutely the cutest, most sensitive little mare that is 110% solid try. Oh and her owner has done an AHMAZING job with her. Seriously.

Once my trainer got me on the same page with this little gal, I had so much fun. She's a training/first level horse that was a reiner sometime in the past. She also thinks like a pony, so I had to be careful to be very soft/giving with my hands, but keep her FORWARD and remember that she likes to drift to the gate. So honest. So fun.

And then while Courage recuperated from bodywork, I got to snag a lesson on a solid-first, schooling-second Friesian cross mare who is also super cool.

and Ms Nikki!

This mare has a ton of excellent training, but has primarily only had one rider. She's a bit suspicious of new people, so I had to sit quietly on her and help her believe I wasn't going to ask for more than she could do. She was super sensitive to my movements and very light off the aids.

This is what I love about having our trainer on board--she knows where I'm at and she knows where Courage is at and she's able to work on me on other horses without being down on Courage. He and I have a complicated relationship, but it's a little too intense right now and the best way to dial it back is to sit on some other horses and remember that yes, I can ride. Sort of.

Both the mares let me figure my stuff out without doing anything dangerous. They had their own ways of going and their own evasions, but they were straightforward and safe.

And then it was time to get back on my man C-rage.