Snap's First Ride!!!!!

Today, I rode Snap for the very first time. And by first ride, I mean first ride in the John Lyons sense.  If you've read his stuff, you know what I mean. :) Basically, I sat on him.

I started off by asking Snap to trot briefly in both directions in the round pen, but before I even did that, I had his attention because he was following me around as if he was on a lead line. Daniel was not home, so I called him quickly to see when he would be home. Soon was the answer, so Snap hung out tied to the trailer for 20 minutes until Daniel got home.

Then back into the round pen we went. First thing we had to fix was something  bothering Snap on his left hind. We never did figure out what it was, but after some fussing, he finally seemed to settle about it.

Then it was TIME! Snap had no clue. Or maybe he did and he thought I was being very slow about it.

 Wiggle the saddle around. Snap didn't react. He wasn't concerned at all. He stayed quite still for me. Guess the work on getting him to stand still while I was by the mounting block paid off!

And, I'm on! I hopped back off fairly quickly. I got on and off several times, spending longer in the saddle each time until the last 3 or 4 times I stayed on for 45 seconds to a minute before getting off.

He did move off sideways one of the times I got on him and I hopped off quickly before he could get more concerned. Then I just repositioned him and started over. He stayed put the other times I got on him. I asked him to give to the bit to either side, just like we'd practiced from the ground. I also wiggled around in the saddle some. He wasn't exactly thrilled, but he wasn't bad either.

As a reward, I pulled all his tack in the round pen and let him go. He hung out with us for a few minutes before taking off at a gallop up to the other horses who were in the corral to keep them out of the way and out of line of sight for distractions.