Our 1st ride

After doing so well with the 7 games on the ground I figured I would see how she reacted to my saddle and bridle. I made this process slow, I was not going to rush her into anything. After the saddle was on, we did a lap around the barn in between tightening the girth one hole at a time. Which takes a while but it prevents a horse from becoming "cinchy". She took the bridle and bit like a champ. I didn't think that she would have any issues with this. She does pull the bit into her mouth and actually gets her teeth on it, chewing the metal. We will have to play around with where is needs to sit for her to respond to it without hurting her mouth and teeth. I led her around the isle by the reins and she was very relaxed. Next was to see if she would stand next to a mounting block. Now racehorses are mounted while they are moving so I knew this was going to be an issue. She would stand by it until I stood on it and she would walk off. So we are going to work on this. Shaun held her while I got on. She is a lot bigger than Chevy so mounting wasn't as graceful as I would have hoped but Izzy was forgiving. Once I was in the saddle and asked her to walk she got tense. For a second I thought for sure that this could be a really bad idea. I kept my body relaxed and talked to her until she loosened up. We just quietly walked up and down the isle. Doing serpentines and turns going both directions.

We worked on walking to halt transitions. She was doing so well I asked her to trot, which is very nice by the way. But that just got her all worked up. And I didn't want our first ride to be a bad experience. Her "brakes" need some improvement and she doesn't back up...which are both normal for a racehorse. They never had to do that before. So we will work on it. She bends surprisingly well which was great. Before the end of the riding session a couple of people showed up and brought food for their horses. At that point I had very little control. She sorta did this half rear spin and wouldn't stand still, so I thought it was better to end there then fall or loose control completely. Better to end with the positive so after getting her to walk one more lap I got off. After she was un-tacked I put on her blanket and she got to go outside and run around with Chevy. Because I have young children at home I can not afford to get seriously hurt. So I am very aware of what is going on around me and try my best to prevent bad situations from happening. I am going to probably try to find a person with more experience with the riding end of retraining OTTB's to work with us.