Cob Jockey

We had a heat wave last night (34F!) and looking at the forecast, I knew I needed to get on Disco for the first time in a couple weeks.

We have three days of this heat wave before multiple days of highs not getting much past 10F and lows below zero, and then it's time for my first lesson with my new trainer. So I thought - I need to at least feel confident that we can steer, walk and trot before that lesson.

This horse made a liar out of me. As I was tacking up, I was telling barnmate Leah that I wanted to work on steering off my seat, because as of the last time I rode him a week or two ago, that's still new to him even if rein aids aren't, thanks to his driving background.

I keep joking that he needs to sleep on things to learn them, but it really seems to be true. Not only was he steering off of my seat easily last night, he was stopping off of my seat, moving forward and back at the walk from my seat, and was even moving laterally off my seat a bit when I needed to move him toward or away from the rail. All of this both while neck reining and direct reining.

These were also our first ever longer trot sets, and I could really feel him experimenting with balance. I tried to use my body to stay centered and to help him out, and I allowed him to play with pace. He still defaults to slug mode at the walk, especially if he's unsure of himself, so it was nice to feel him try out a more forward trot. And when it got so forward that it was inhibiting him from finding his balance, stilling my seat and saying "eaaaasy" brought him right back.

It's kind of amazing how safe I feel on this horse already, and how riding him already feels like riding Connor in some ways. I have to remind myself to ride a little defensively and practice grabbing the neck strap, because I know I'll need both eventually. But really, he's being such a good boy.