Going Naked

Rain has been having issues standing for the mounting block. Who could blame her? It's not like they practice standing still for that on the track; one person leads the horse, one person boosts the jockey, and the jock hops on while the horse is walking (or trotting, sometimes) forward. So I decided that tonight, we'd work on it. Bonnie suggested that every time Rain moved, she be put to work.

So, I dragged the mounting block into the round pen, and dragged Rain in, too. I decided that I didn't want a saddle, because I had some weird hang-up about getting caught up halfway in a stirrup if she got stupid. So, bareback it was. And, I figured, why not go all natural horsemanship-esque and just use a halter and lead rope (plus I didn't want to be jerking on her face with a bit in her mouth if she happened to walk off while I was still on the mounting block).

It started off rough, ain't gonna lie. She trotted a lot of circles in the round pen before she decided that standing still was easier than wiggling all over the place. I got her to stand still, then laid all over her, patted her everywhere. Finally I told myself to stop being a pansy and just swing my leg over. She stood like a rock. I was thrilled. So then I slid off. Then I did it all over again. We tooled all over the round pen, stopped, backed up. Rain was so quiet. I continued to be thrilled.

Please ignore the glowing eye.