Charlie's first ride at his new home :)

So when I got to the barn this am Charlie was alert and happy and clearly wondering why he was inside and not outside playing.  All good signs, but I didn't want him going out till I was prepared to stay and supervise...

Taught a couple lessons and then decided to ride.   Decent weather for November, so figured I'd ride outside.  Despite the crazy wind.  hahaha well Charlie came out very high - gigging beside my walk and looking at everything.  Fair enough - no turnout, new place, horses running around in adjoining paddocks.  Not exactly a calming scenario.  But I promised Hailey she could ride him tomorrow so I wanted to make sure he was ok first!

So I walked him around a bit and while high, he wasn't actually doing anything wrong.  And not in the least bit spooky.  So while I was contemplating lunging him, I just got on.   Now some of you will be familiar with the feeling...  The feeling that you're sitting on a coiled spring waiting to explode - in any potential number of directions.  Anybody who rides babies, esp tb babies, will have felt that at some point :)  And having ridden a few who could seem calm on the outside and explode with the best of them (ahhhh memories of clearing the w/u ring at Glen Oro with an overly dramatic green-bean *g*) I'm well attuned to that power.

And yes, that's exactly what I felt when I got on.  hmmmm So thinking 'must go forward - horse going forward doesn't go up' and ride on fully prepared to be going any number of directions at any speed.  Well we didn't really get a good forward, but impressively we didn't get anything that even remotely resembled threatening to go up.  He is SUCH a sweetheart.  He was full of power and nervous energy and yet he tried soooo hard to do what I was asking and didn't even attempt to expend any of said excess in any of the multiple options available.

I was pretty excited about that.   And while I won't say we ever actually got to relaxed, he def chilled out fairly quickly.  And just kept trying.  The kind of heart you just can't train.

I think Hailey and Paula are going to have a lot of fun this summer :)