Today Was Cool!

OK, this blog is ending up being a HORSE blog, not just training Valley blog. Anyways:

Today Tyler came, picked me up, and took me to her house to ride their champion Racking Horse Chief! Mr. Lynn had already been working with Chief for about an hour before I came. Chief had an English saddle and bridle on, which I'm not used to since I'm a western rider! Well, I have ridden in an English saddle before, because we have one, and I've ridden Chloe and SugarBabe in it. Anyways....
Mr. Lynn went down to the barn and brought a lounge line back up. He said he didn't want me to ride Chief without a lounge line right now cause he said Chief is crazy (Tyler said that too).
So, he attached the lounge line to Chief's bridle, and I mounted Chief. Mr. Lynn shortened the stirrups as short as they could go (which if I was riding Western, would have been good, but since I was riding English, they needed to be somewhat shorter).
He lead Chief (and me, lol) to the pasture, and started walking us around. Then he started to lunge us. First he had me walk Chief. Chief is very sensitive to the reins. If I just barely put any pressure on the reins, he will stop dead. And when I want him to walk, I just say, "Walk." I can't kick him, cause he don't like that (all of this Mr. Lynn told me before I started to ride). That was kind of hard for me. Mr. Lynn just wanted me to walk Chief, but Chief, Chief wanted to rack. So I had to make him walk. I said the word 'walk' like a million times. OK, not that much...
After a while, Chief started to walk more than trying to rack. Then, Mr. Lynn told me too 'cluck' to Chief to make him rack! So I clucked, and immediately he started to rack! It was so cool! I've never done that before. It was a cool experience! After a few minutes, we stopped. Mr. Lynn told Chief, "Get out! Get out!" and pushed Chief's shoulder. He also was telling me to say it, but I didn't know what it meant! I dismounted, and Mr. Lynn told me that doing that, makes Chief 'stretch out', so it was easier for me to dismount. He also told Chief to do it when he put the stirrups up. So after we all petted Chief for a minute or two, Mr. Lynn took him back to the barn to wipe him down. I didn't get to ride very long, 'cause Chief's front two shoes were about to fall off.
Then Tyler took me back home. From the time she picked me up, to the time she brought me back, it was only about 26 minutes! Well, that's all for now, so ttul!

Love,
Sarah