July 19, 2007
Tonight was a big night for Booger! It was a night of a few firsts.
1) First time wearing a bridle.
2) First time wearing my western saddle.
3) First time being sat on by moi!!

Nova was a bit unsure what to do with that crazy bridle thing I put on his head! He took it very nicely (the clueless always do the first time), but then proceeded to chew, and chew, and mouth, and chew on it. I actually ended up taking it off before he stopped chewing, just because I couldn't wait any longer. But I got it off nicely, without bumping his teeth. And I'll be putting it back on him again soon.

Exactly as I expected, he didn't even blink when I put the saddle pad and then the saddle on. He didn't care when Mom did up the cinches. And like I did with Su, I led him around and walked and trotted to make sure he didn't have any goofiness in him before I got on. Nupe, he was totally okay with it.

So... Onto the BIG MOMENT!! Haha. I had Mom hold him while I hopped halfway up and bellied him (which I've done before, bareback, from the mounting block, but not from the ground with a saddle), and when he didn't seem very concerned, I sat up and put my leg over him. He wasn't as relaxed as Su about the whole thing, but he's not as relaxed as she is normally. So we stood there talking and petting him, and then I had Mom lead us around the yard. He did very well! We did pause once to reassure him because Mom felt he was getting really nervous, but I hadn't felt that up on him - but better safe than sorry! I let him eat some grass while Mom went to grab the camera, then asked him to bring his head up. He did pretty good, but did start to back up (not a panic back up, but more a confused, "I want to eat grass, Christine."), but thankfully stopped when I told him 'whoa'.

He did really, really well, and I was very proud of the big baby!

July 22, 2007
Well, not quite as big as my last post, but tonight I ponied Nova off of Kaila again. I was very pleased with how well he did. He hasn't been ponied very often, probably only three times before, but he behaved like we'd done this quite often.

At the beginning of our ride, we came across some neighbours of ours that breed (stunning) morgans, and Nova got complimented on how big and handsome he was! I was soooooo proud! And coming from that family, and knowing their horses, it really is a compliment!

And he nicely settled down and spent most of the ride walking with his head just ahead of my knee with the rope loose, and his head level and relaxed. He had a few times of falling behind and Kaila had to haul him along, but he soon found that was uncomfortable and walked back up to my knee. He didn't even get scared of the mini donkey (curious, but not scared). We do have to do some work with cars - the ones that pass us slowly in the Village are no problem, but the ones zipping along at 80km/hr on the range road were spooky. So, I will have to take him there and have him hang out until they aren't scary anymore.

But he was soooooo good, and again, I was very proud of him!