Suddens New Rider
For the past 3 or 4 weeks Sudden has been ridden once a week by a 12 year old girl named Kelsey. Kelsey had put an ad on a local website wanting a horse to ride and since I can not comfortably ride Sudden I thought it might be a good match. Kelsey said she was experienced and had taken lessons but from her first ride I knew that to not be exactly true. She certainly knows how to sit on a horse but we had to fix her hands, legs and heels. I have given her some tips and hollered many a time and made her legs hurt with some exercises just enough that I think she is beginning to get the hang of it. I try to not butt in too much unless she is doing something really wrong as I feel it is important that she learn to think on her own and figure things out.
Sudden is being a perfect angel and gives her just enough trouble that Kelsey realizes she can't just be a passenger but has to actually ride. Today Kelsey was trying to learn how to post correctly but every time she would go up Sudden would either go back into a walk or a really slow jog. I tried to explain how to squeeze as she went up but was unable to get my point across so I had her practice riding the trot without her stirrups to help build up her balance and strength. I don't think Kelsey was very happy with me today either that or she was just frustrated.
After the ride Kelsey, her sister and her cousin took turns riding Sudden and then they gave her a bath. It was really cute to see the three of them washing her and arguing amongst themselves about who was doing what. Sudden really enjoyed the bath and soaked up the attention.
