Practicing discomfort

Last night was a beautiful night, and I was looking forward to riding outside.  However, the kids next door have a new toy in the form of a Carryall type utility golf cart thingy.  It’s bigger, louder and faster than your typical golf cart.   They were ripping up and down their side yard, hooting and hollering.  I decided that as much as I’d prefer to avoid this sort of thing that riding with this distraction would be good for both me and Derbs.

As I led him out of the barn after tacking up, the cart zoomed by, its occupants whooping.  Derbs spooked, levitating away from me with all four feet off the ground, to the end of the reins, snorting excitedly with his eyes bugging out.

I regained some control, and led Derby, who was now doing his “scaredy-snort” at regular intervals, to the outdoor.  Christy was riding Liam out there, and Liam was totally unconcerned.  Derby mellowed out as I girthed him up and ran my stirrups down.

Once mounted, I had to work on bringing my own focus to my horse and that moment, rather than the kids in the cart.  It took a lap or two but pretty soon we had some decent walk.  However, when we started trotting, some tension returned as the kids in the cart momentarily increased their racket.

I worked on employing the tactics Christy had used with us the prior evening.  For quite a while I struggled.  Yes, his head was down but he wasn’t on the bit, he was bracing, and he wasn’t round.  Finally, however, we got there.  Despite the racket and goofiness we got a nice round trot.

So, it wasn’t the most eventful ride, but that’s kind of the point.  Sometimes, eventful really isn’t the goal!