No Bit Problem today and I Cantered!

Every day is a new day with my boy, Dude. I walked out and put the bridle on him on the first try. I was as surprised as anybody. As I watched Westerns on TV yesterday I was sad because they lope all over the place with no problems. As I lay in bed last night I thought of my plan, so today I implemented it. I put my Western saddle on today. When we got into the power line right of way, my daughter took off cantering on Matt, so I just let Dude be on a long rein and followed. Dude cantered, too, right lead, a little head toss, but no buck. Ha!

We had a balking incident in the middle of Brown Road, of course. Scared the piss out of me. Bad, Dudey. The rest of the ride was good, lots of walk/trot transitions. I got off to potty and tighten the saddle in the woods. No problems. "Our" cows were all in their pasture when we passed, but Dude was giving them the stink eye just in case. No problems going past the neighbor horses, or not much of a balk on that, anyway. I noticed it takes me awhile to get where I'm supposed to be sitting in the Western saddle. I need to take my stirrups up a notch, too. It was a beautiful day and we got back at 11:45 a.m., so we beat the heat to a certain extent. Off to shower and nap, then clean house.