Sheesh!

I am really slacking here...I just realized that I NEVER posted that we got a horse! After wanting one my entire life we purchased a Belgian Purebred stallion in April.

He wasn't very happy with his new home at first. The week after he came home he made a trip to the vet to fix the stallion part. No way was I going to have a stallion here with two little girls. Then a few weeks after that he got sent to training.

The trainer we hired it took me almost the entire time to figure out that I should have chosen someone else. She did teach him and he has a whole lot better manners than he did when he left but she put only half the time into him that the other trainer we were considering would have and she didn't put the 60 rides on him. She left that for me to do! HA! That would be part of why I hired a trainer! I don't like green horses taking me for "rides" and there's a BIG difference between 60 rides and 5. Also even though she had agreed to train him to drive as well her version of it was throwing the harness on him and hooking him up. Consequently he barely accepts the harness and now spooks when anything is hooked up behind him.

This is where I mention that while not a beginner I'm far from being a confident BALANCED rider. I'm used to riding the ranch horses. Jericho will balk and refuse to move and play dumb games like that but I can deal with that. She even reared once with me. Conveniently I was trying a new saddle when she did it and the seat was too small for my rear and I was stuck in it! LOL She's never tried that with me since. My new horse is not only green but he's young. He's only a two year old (almost three now). I named him Josh. I couldn't think of anything else that fit him and I was also being cute. "Joshua" fought the battle of "Jericho"

My first few rides on him go something like this....
Ride 1: Use cable spools to climb on. I can't mount him on my own as he's over 16 hands tall. Ride around to the front of the house, dance sideways at fowl, stop and stare at car, back away from house. Okay...not bad but not pleasant. That's enough for today now...how do I get down?? Guide horse towards back of house and cable spools. Horse balks at propane tank and wont ride by it again. Try higher up on the hill, horse balks at rabbit hutches. Hubby asleep in house and doesn't know I'm stuck. Hmmm...look around what can I use...Guide horse up to trailer, dismount onto trailer right as horse jumps sideways away from it.
Rides 2-4: Cable spool climb on, ride around front, ride around house area for several minutes, ride reluctantly back to the back and dismount on cable spools.
Rides 5-6: Climb on on cable spool, ride around front and out into pasture across rode. Open area now. He's reluctant to move back to the house as he isn't tired yet but does so with coaxing. Ride progressively further out.
Ride 7: Mount, ride around front, down the rode and out into pasture. He's been doing so well that I decide to take him even further out. He's done good going to the stream so I have him walk along it and look for a place to cross. Find a place to cross. Steps willingly into stream and paws water onto tummy a bit then moves calmly up other side. the crossing leads out onto an area surrounded by gullys. We ride up one hill away from the stream only to be stuck on a plateau. Checking out the terrain I spy a gently sloping hill with a small 4" step down at the bottom. The area then crosses a small branch of water. It then goes up a slow slope back to the top of the open area. This looks like our best bet. We start slowly down the hill. Halfway down the hill we suddenly break into a gallop and go tearing down the hill followed by a mighty leap over the 4" step landing and then jumping over the creek. We then dash up the other side before I can bring him to a stop. Oh geez!! Okay....I'm alright....then my stomach sinks as I realize that to go home I have to go back through that. I feel sick. He's standing there acting as if nothing happened. I manage my first dismount without an aid and drop thankfully the last inches to the ground. I didn't sign up for this....shouldn't this have been covered by a trainer in his first 60 rides??!!! Scratching his neck (I really do adore the horse) I lead him back down the gully and across the ditch and stream and walk the rest of the way home. I don't see anything I can use as a mounting aid and that's just fine with me!

(more on Josh another day...
Day 3 and probably 4 of the challenge...sick sick sick...get better!, keep up water intake)