I can be sensible! Sometimes. When it's warranted.

[primediamond]

One of the things I've longed for ever since I got Prime has been to ride out together with friends. And we've finally got to that! Last week I was out twice, the first time with co-owner E on her Elliot, and the second time with my friend C also on Elliot. It went very well; Prime was naturally a bit tense and wanted to look at everything at the same time. Having Elliot along helped a great deal; they are in the same part of the stable and spend the day in the same pasture so they're part of the same flock. It gave Prime the extra security he needed, and he behaved very well.

Yesterday we went out again, with C and Elliot. It was quite windy and Prime was a bit more jumpy than the previous times. He stood very nicely when I got up, which is comforting, but he was making tiny jumps with about every fifth step - showing that he found it really hard to walk quietly but he was trying, really! I've fallen off of him twice, and he doesn't like that, so he tries his best to not make me fall off, but it was obvious that he was having a hard time behaving himself. Also he had to look in all directions at the same time because windy!

I decided that if it didn't get better by the time we reached a certain point, maybe 300 metres from the stable, I'd turn back. And it didn't, so we did. He got even more jumpy because now we changed things from the previous outings! We'd always continued on there, this turning back thing was new and weird! After a short while I decided to get down and walk by him back to the stable. He was even more jumpy now that he didn't have to worry about the lump on his back falling off. I brought him in, took the tack off, and turned him out in the paddock where he proceeded to run around like a mad thing. A mad thing that had swallowed a Duracell rabbit... Once he calmed down enough to want to stop and eat instead of racing around, I brought him back in and brushed him for a goodish while.

I'm very proud - I was able to judge the situation and handle it safely; I didn't stick with the original plan when my horse was too jumpy for it to be a good ride, and I found a solution that let him get his energy out in a way that was safe for both of us. A few years back, I might have gone on riding just because that was the plan. It's a very good thing indeed that I've finally learned some caution.