SPIDERSWEB

Since Spider died in 2006, I haven't done much with the horses in terms of riding.  Because of this and because of a couple horse accidents since then I have lost a lot of the confidence I had in riding.  My folks talked with my trainer about it and she offered to come pick up Trib and for the two of us to do one of her clinics.

The clinic was this past Sunday and it was a BLAST!  I got to meet a lot of nice horse people and Trib and I got to know each other better.

We did a lot of ground work in the outdoor arena and later on Christy used Trib as a "problem horse" example.  She tried to see if she could get him to blow up and have one of his backup episodes.  She was able to get him to have a couple of incidents but they were a 4 or less on his blow up meter.  It turns out he seems to have more of a claustrophobia/pressure issue since it happened when he stepped on his lead rope and after he was cinched up.

After he was saddled we went back outside, did some more ground work, then hopped onto our horses.  Trib and I rode in just a rope halter and lead rope and he did pretty well.  We had a couple of disagreements with standing still, stopping and backing but once I used my body more (sitting on my pockets to whoa, leaning back to backup) we got along much better.  We did mostly walking out there but I finally got pushed into trying the trot and... we did it!

Next we went out to the obstacle course to send our horses over the obstacles.  Trib did great over a couple but wanted nothing to do with walking or jumping over barrels.  Christy worked with him and convinced Trib it was okay and he finally went over them.  Then he got to play on the BIG obstacle (no idea what it's called) and Trib didn't even hesitate to go up on it.

After all that playing it was time to hop back on our horses and ride around the parameter of the obstacle course.  We walked a couple laps one way, then switched directions and walked the other way.  Next it was time to trot.  No biggie for Trib.  By this time I was finally comfortable and ready for the canter, so when Christy told me to get going we did and it felt AWESOME!  He sure does cover a lot of ground with those long legs of his though ;)

The last part was ending the day with a trail ride.  Trib was so not in the mood for any more work (we were both pretty pooped by this time) so he lagged way behind the rest of the group.  We ended up losing the others in the trees and I couldn't find the trail.  We tried to go in one direction and ended up with branches blocking our path.  It seemed to make Trib nervous (he didn't do anything bad) so we turned around and headed back out the way we came.  I wasn't familiar with the area and figured we'd get lost in the trees since I didn't know where everyone else had gone so Trib and I headed back for the barn.  Trib wasn't worried about being by himself so it was a nice relaxing ride back just the two of us.

Once at the barn, I was just getting ready to dismount when Rob and Tater rode up to find me.  He asked if I wanted to go back out and take a couple shortcuts to meet up with the group and off we went.  Rob was so great to ride with.  He's one of the types that makes sure you're comfortable with a trot before he just takes off and makes you feel at ease in general.  Needless to say the ride was wonderful and eventually we caught up with everyone else and finished the ride.  Trib did awesome following Tater and going over logs and through the brush.

After our last horse incident I was starting to question my decision to buy Trib and worrying that he was too much horse for me.  After Sunday, this just proved that my first instinct was the right one and that Trib is meant to be here.