Today I rode Sovey bareback around the farm for about 45 minutes. It was overcast and cold. I didn't have a camera so I looked in my files for a photo of him bareback in just his bridle and I found this from last March! Same grey day, same cutie boy Sovey. Maybe life isn't moving fast at all. I am stuck in the same place! How great is that to be repeating good bareback rides on the best Sovey horse in March?
Sovereign was sweet today considering the temperature. It was chilly and spitting snowflakes here and there. My neighbor thought it was a good day to hang out laundry and Sovey had a tiny fuss up - nothing too bad at all.
Then, on the way back home he started trotting by the tennis court and kept right on until we got to the forebay. I didn't ask him for the trot and I really don't like the idea of rushing back to the barn like that. I gently circled him around and walked him back to the corner of the pool fence so we could redo this part again. I was determined to have him walk slowly without using my reins. I had a nice line from his noseband (bitless bridle) to my elbow, but I did not have any tension on the reins. I sat deep and relaxed my back and asked him with my body to walk slow. Amazingly he did! He went right back around the tennis court at a relaxed pace. I swear I could hear my lesson instructor from my youth saying, "Good girl" to me, but it wasn't me - it was him! We walked down a slope and he kept his head straight. I saw his right eyeball go right in the direction of the barn but he put his eyes back straight in a second and allowed me to ask him to turn right.
He walked slowly up under the forebay and stood perfectly still until I dismounted. I gave him many carrots - no hugs for our sensitive, Diana Ross boy (I love you. Don't touch me! - I am sorry to report that the Mag Restore hasn't helped his aversion to hugging.) I love him so. I am sure he is psychic. Either that or psycho. Once when Maizie was four years old she and I said the same thing at the same time and she confused the two words psychic and psycho. She said, "Oh, Mama, we are psychos together!" That we are, and Sovey makes three!
Good boy Sovey! Sounds like you had a nice ride and did the right thing going back and repeating the walk. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteAww, what a good boy he is!
ReplyDeleteJuliette, What a wonderful ride you had with Sovey! So interesting that when you focused intently on walking slower, with your body and not the reins, he did it! It is amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it- the horse does seem to have an extra connection to it, don't they? Sometimes I forget to concentrate like that, but your post reminds me of that special communication we sometimes have. He surely responds to you and connects with you. So it makes his dislike of hugs unusual. Maybe something happened in his past. But you are a wonderful mom to him and that was a remarkable ride with him!
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