Arena ride--day one

Well, I got through it—my first evening arena ride. I had a surprise visit of nerves. Remember how I used to be afraid of riding over at the far end? It didn’t help that it was windy and rainy outside. The neighbor’s dogs were barking, too. If I would have spent the time early in the ride to walk the perimeter a few times, I might have been all right, but a kid was there that wanted to see the pre-ride warm up, so we put on a little in hand show of silly walk and bowing. Once I got into the saddle, he wanted to practice his side passes and spins—getting plenty of ooohs and ahhhs. It got Cole all hyped up. Once they left, he still wanted to put a show on, so he was very bouncy and reactive. The weird part is, if he would do those things on the trail, I wouldn’t get nervous at all.

Anyway, we worked through it. It took me a half hour before I could trot both directions around the far end, but I did it. Next time, I will immediately walk him on the far end, over and over, until my nerves are replaced with boredom. It has worked in the past, so I am sure it will work, again.

The big trot is back, and I feel like a lousy rider. He is throwing me all over the saddle, but apparently, he looks good. If I can survive the huge leap into the transition, I do pretty well. I will have to build up my muscles and endurance. I forgot how tough he can be.

I know we will get better—we have all winter to practice.

Now, for the good news. Cruiser keeps improving. We trotted probably a total of 5 minutes. He also threw in a canter in the beginning and a buck at the end. He is very happy to be doing the trotting, so that is a good sign, too. His speed has increased a little, and there is still no sign of lameness in either direction. He is prompt on his transitions, and it looks like he may be striding out a little more. The tough part is I don’t have much endurance for trotting in hand. This is another thing I need to build up on. I don’t want to lounge him because I don’t want to do a lot of circles. Things are looking up for Cruiser, and that is a wonderful thing.