Trails to Lead Old Cowboys Home Again: Last Night, Today and Five Weeks

I rode for about 45 minutes last night and again today. We had some issues. . . .

It started like this:

And then this:

And then we did a lot of this:

We did a lot of trotting and a few steps of a canter. However, the second time we got going fast enough to canter, I almost got tossed. Ashke spun to the right and almost bounced me out of the saddle. I was pulling leather (which is definitely more difficult when there isn't a HORN!) and clamped my knees up under the fenders on the saddle. When I clamped my knees, I managed to goad Ashke into whirling around. All this time I was shouting Hhoooo!!! Ashke stopped. It felt like we had spun around in a circle several times. J said we went in a circle one time.

I looked like this:

After we got it straightened out, we did this:

When we were both tired of trotting around in big circles, we stopped. When I went to get off I dragged my heel across Ashke's hip and he freaked. I decided I needed to work on mounting and dismounting. I went to put my foot in the stirrup and as I swung my foot up, Ashke shied violently. I stopped and stopped him, then tried again. Again, I stopped him and went to swing up. He shied. I realized the motion of my foot was exactly like the motion of someone's foot if Ashke had been kicked. Made me feel sick to my stomach. I talked to Ashke and reassured him as I swung my foot over and over again until he no longer flinched at the motion. Finally, I was able to swing up without him taking issue with my attempt. I swung my foot over his hips and sat in the saddle, then back out and then back in, until Ashke sighed in boredom.

After the trot-fest we did this:

Silly horse didn't mind it on his neck or withers, hated it on his rump and danced when I sprayed his penis. He would have levitated if he could have at the latter.