No Longer A One-Person Horse

Ace had two very special visitors last night: my mom and my sister Sheryl.

My younger sisters are identical twins, and are just 20 months younger than I am. Mom had them on horses from the time they were young also. We grew up riding together, and even managed to compete against each other with good attitudes. Unfortunately, the horse bug didn’t quite bite them the way it did me. While they aren’t riding regularly, they do get into the saddle every once in a while and are still very nice riders.

Sheryl (on the right) moved to Oklahoma last summer (quite a trek from PA and OH where the rest of us are) and thus had never met her new nephew Ace. She’s been home for a few weeks, and one of her to-do’s was to come meet him! So last night she and mom drove over for a visit.

Ace was a little less than his typically social self when we first arrived at the barn because he was busy with his hay. But we brushed him up, threw on some tack, and took him out to the pasture for some riding.

I’m not sure what I was thinking, but for some reason I went and told Sheryl that I would even let her get on Ace if she wanted! I was a little nervous about it because I’m the only one who rides him. I didn’t know how he would do! Since I’ve had him, my mom rode him a bit  once and Dave walked him once way back last fall. It’s taken a lot of work for me to teach Ace to listen to me, and I had no idea how well he would respect someone else.

I hopped on first to get him started, and then turned him over to my mom. He was very good for her, other than one good spook when the neighbor dog ran at him barking (when Ace spooks, he drops and goes sideways, blows a bit, and then moves off like nothing happened. Mom liked that response!).

I knew Ace would listen to my mom pretty well. She taught me most of what I know, so for him it was like having a shorter version of me on his back.

Sheryl was up next. I was so pleased that Ace took great care of her and even listened to  her pretty well. He did test her a little bit because she was a tad more tentative about it. He took a little more coaxing to go forward, and tried to do his “stop and visit” thing when she rode him by once. But she was able to get him forward without too much trouble and enjoyed her time on him. I was a slightly nervous but very proud mother!

It was a good chance for me to watch Ace move under saddle, especially with his stifle issues of late. He didn’t look great, but he didn’t look bad either. His stiffness was more pronounced if we posted on the left diagonal than on the right. And the better he moved the better he looked.

Despite the lameness issue, it was really fun to watch Ace go under saddle! And I was thrilled with how well he responded to several different riders. Thanks for helping me with Ace’s training guys!