Day 23: October 25 - Passenger Riding

Today was our first time in the saddles, and it was a completely different style of riding for me. We had two smaller pens set up on each end of the arena, and there was the round pen. Then, there was just the main part of the arena as one big section. Our instructions were to tie the lead rope to the saddle horn, and to let them go where they wanted. We could start in whichever section we wanted if we were nervous, or if our horse had a lot of energy. We also had our carrot stick which we could use to direct their movement.

I don't have a picture with Poncho, but this is the idea. No reins.

It was really weird to ride without reins. I've never actually done that before. I've set them down to take my coat off, or something like that, but to just have them tied to the saddle horn was really hard for me. Once I started getting used to it, my main goal was to just be able to change his direction, so I didn't worry about the gait. Most of the horses were either trotting or loping without any encouragement, but not Poncho. He stayed at a walk the whole time. But, Brother Twitchell said that if we were telling them where to go, to let them choose the gait, so I didn't push him to go any faster. Next time I ride him though, I definitely plan on making him trot.