back on my high horse

Last night, Ace and I had our first ride since the end of March. The vet okayed him for 30 minutes of walking under saddle three days a week, something that even I know means he's getting better.

He was fantastic. He used to be a bit of a spaz when I used to take him out to ride him, and he'd walk around the tie pole until he'd twisted the lead rope around so much that he couldn't move his head--then he'd get offended and basically wig out. It was a real nice, endearing trait of his, let me tell you. Actually it really wasn't, but it's alright now because he didn't even THINK of doing that last night. Hooray! Ace was totally quiet when I tacked him up and got him all decked out for our first ride. I got to use my new saddle which I absolutely looooove (Billy Cooks are the best) and plunked down half a college semester for, but I've only ridden Ace in it about four times. It fits all of the other horses I ride, though, so it's nice and broken in, just not really for him. Irony hurts, right?

Anyway, I got on him and rode in the round pen, just so that he didn't feel encouraged to prance and put up a fuss. He really didn't do anything after he put up three huge bucks when I was trying to get my other stirrup. Really, he was fantastic, and much better than he was when I was even riding him full time in March. I think he might just love his mommy more now, just because all she's been doing for the past four months is take him on long handgrazes, stuff his face with food, and generally put up a fuss over him. Ace has decided his favorite shampoo, even--y'all will probably find me crazy, but if I uncap them and hold them in front of his nose, he takes a long sniff, curls his lip, and then nudges the one he likes best. I. Kid. You. Not.

I'm off on a tangent again, but he walked flatfooted around for half an hour, moving off my leg and keeping his head nice and level, a serious accomplishment seeing as four months ago my mom said he looked like a giraffe, no matter what I tried with him. Ace was sore, but the roundpen has lots of little pebbles and it felt like he was just kind of ow, ow, ow-ing over them, not really out of pain but just that his foot is tender after getting that humongous stone bruise cut out. His old owner called Ace a pansy because he did the same thing when he was shoeing him, but that was because the guy was some kinda Barefoot Nazi and trimmed him basically to sad little stumps. See picture in first post to know what I'm talking about.

In all, it was a really, really nice little ride, and I'm totally proud of him. I might put up a little blurb on Wednesday about our ride then, and after this weekend I'm going to dedicate a post to all of my current projects, and my other horse, Captain. Plus I'm going to take a horde of pictures this weekend, so those should come up sometime soon. Phew. I'm a busy person, I'll tell you.