Full of Surprises

Last week, B and I traveled 1.5 hours southeast to pick up a Western saddle that I had found on Facebook for cheap. It's a 17" (because he is a very tall person) Wintec that came with a pad for $115 - too good a deal to pass by. We tried it on Leo when we got home, and it fit nicely. I also put him in a random western headstall because aesthetics are everything, and then Leo was being so chill that I decided to hop on and see what would happen.

To my immense surprise, Leo was pretty well behaved - he didn't exhibit any of his normal herd sour behaviors, and seemed to be really happy with his new western apparel. Then the weather changed dramatically and it started to rain, so I hopped off and untacked pretty quickly.

Last week was quite busy, and I didn't get the chance to ride Leo again until Saturday. KG lent us a smaller western saddle, and I tacked Leo up excitedly. He seemed a little more lit than he had the previous week, and this continued under saddle as he reverted to his usual herd-sour evasions - spinning, running sideways, etc. I tried to keep his feet moving, circling close to his friends then moving away, only letting him halt when he was faced away from them and slightly relaxed.

This went on for a while, and with some encouragement from the tough love department, a switch finally flipped. Suddenly he was walking away without issue, going farther every time. I began to ask for a trot every time we passed the spot where B was hanging out with the mares, and while the first pass was tense, the subsequent trips were astonishing.

My giraffing, dolphining, bit evading saddlebred suddenly settled into this western pleasure dreamboat without any prompting. I can only guess that he was trained to do this at some point. Of all the bits we ever tried, we never went for anything with shanks, and he was happier in this single jointed copper mouth western bit than I've ever seen him.

There was also some cantering, and I was almost crying because I truly didn't think I'd ever be able to ride him like this again - happy and free, sound and sane. It was beautiful.

I am hoping to get another ride in tomorrow because it's stupid cold again today. I still don't know if we'll ever jump again, and I honestly don't care. I'm just beyond happy to have my horse back.