The first ride!

Peg is gaining weight, her feet were done a few weeks ago, she looks sound and ready.... I will try her out for the first time since she came to our farm. I had tried her before I bought her, but she was thin and I felt extremely bad, so I only did a circle, a figure eight and a back at a very slow walk and got off!!! I didn't want to make her work. It took longer to saddle her!

So, I get my saddle and pad ready, her bridle and brushes. She is standing cross-tied in the barn, I've brushed her before, so that is no big deal, I know she has good manners on the ground. I brush her, clean and check her hooves. Put the pad on, no reaction, put the saddle on, no reaction... she is a bit girthy and probably always will be no matter how carefull I am. She pricks her ears at me, she doesn't like the grith, she kicks at it with her hind legs. I quickly correct her, I don't want any of my horses to use their back legs as a defense mechanism even if it's not against me, I was standing close enough. I don't over correct them, just a slap on the thigh of the leg she kicked with and a mean "NOOO!". She understood and quit. She took the bridle like a champ, for Peg, I use a plain "O" ring snaffle and she seems to be very comfortable with it. I lead her out of the barn to mount.... keep in mind that she is somewhere near the 16.2-16.3 hh mark and she won't stand for me to mount, after many tries (I always try to get on their back by myself, unless they are REALLY nervous and jigging around), I ask my sister to hold her while I try to mount... I'm 5'8'', but not super thin, plus, I've never had a horse this tall, I'm really stretching to get my foot in that stirrup! I finally get on her back and as soon as my butt is in that saddle, she's off! I can't stop her, she only goes and goes. I manage to get a bit of control over her and towards the middle of our ride she is doing better... but she can't stop for more than a half second. Since I've had many horse related accidents (nothing really bad), I don't feel safe getting her in a quicker pace.

I ride for a bit and my boyfriend wants to try her out. He gets on and is doing great! He needs a bit of tunning, but he is not pulling in her mouth and he's being quiet. Of course, Peg does not understand leg cues so well, but she manages to catch on quickly. She is light on the bit, except for stopping. As soon as you put a leg on her, she jumps... she is nervous, she is sweating profusely. I had also saddled Dandy, my reliable mount (she's was 3 at the time!) to keep Peg good company. We also had to get Pearl out of the paddock because she would've jumped the fence... she's still in foal at that point so we took her in the alfalfa field to change her mind! She was still thin, so green alfalfa couldn't hurt. She grazed in it for about 15 minutes.

My sister and I were now riding, she was on Peg and I was on Dandy, we rode around the alfalffa field and my sister tried her other speed... at that point, she only knew how to walk and pace, so she paced a bit around the field, by that time, she was soaking with sweat and was in a lather. She's so out of shape... our little outing lasted about 30 to 45 minutes and she was drenched, Dandy didn't even break a sweat and I made her trot around much more! We will work on Peg's fitness and training during the whole summer.