I Start Riding Bingo More    

During my lesson on Bingo on Wednesday, he did fine until we were trotting around, when he did a twisting evasion so he would not have to trot at a particular place at the rail.  He had caused another rider a problem at the same place during another lesson (by breaking into a canter), so Debbie went to that spot, dug down, and concluded that she would have to have the base of the ring repaired at that place.  Bingo was obviously trying to tell everyone that he did not feel comfortable going at a trot in that particular place, though he would walk on it just fine.  Maybe he had twisted his right leg there earlier, which could explain the muscle spasms on the side of his right haunch.  I am beginning to suspect that Bingo thinks humans are DUMB ANIMALS, unable to understand a clear warning about possible danger.

I had changed the shims in the Pegasus pad like I described last week, but that did not help much at all.  My saddle was still shifting to the left, Debbie took a picture with her phone and sure enough, even though my left stirrup felt too short my left foot looked around two holes lower than my right foot whose stirrup felt way too long!  Though my string girths finally came, I think they stretch enough so that the 48” girth was a little bit too long for him and I could not really get it tight enough to stop the saddle from moving. 

As I concentrated on keeping my seat and my saddle centered on Bingo’s back, Debbie and I got into a long discussion about the making of a lesson horse.  Debbie told me about two particular horses she owned that had started off as completely unreliable as beginner horses, until one day they “bought into” Debbie’s riding program and became among the most reliable beginner horses of her stable.  One of them, who had done a spectacular meltdown, changed to a horse that would reliably shift himself under a rider that was starting to fall off to the side so that the rider would stay on.  Debbie values her lesson horses highly, and she will not sell them.  She has hopes that Bingo will become another reliable lesson horse, mainly because he stolidly ignores things that send many horses into fits.  She is giving him a break from beginners for a few weeks, hoping that with just me riding him he will get into the habit of obeying his rider.

Well, Mia has been giving me signals that she is not enjoying our rides any more.  She obeys me, but where before she would take pride in doing well she is just plodding through, and she is getting upset about external things that she has ignored for years.  At thirty years old, after a less than ideal life, Mia may feel that it is time to slow down.  I told Debbie this, and that I would be willing to ride Bingo for my homework ride so he would have more time under me.  Debbie agreed that this might be the best solution for all concerned, so now I will be riding Bingo two times a week, for a grand total of one hour a week. 

When I got home, I changed the shims in the Pegasus pad again.  Now there are even numbers of shims on each side.  After a lot of thought I changed the thin shim in the rear pockets to the thicker felt shim, remembering what Ron had told me about the Pegasus Butterfly saddle moving too much if it was not supported.  So now I have no shims in the front pockets, all four shims in the 2^nd and 3^rd pockets and the felt shim in the rear pockets.

Friday started off cool, with a fine drizzle, but, ever optimistic and determined to see if I had finally gotten the shims right for Bingo, I went out to ride.  When the girl brought Bingo to the wash stall he was not very pleased, he had to leave off eating hay!  My husband groomed him with the HandsOn grooming gloves which helped Bingo resign himself to losing out on the hay, and I ran around putting Bingo’s Back on Track poll cap, hind exercise boots and butt blanket on him.  At least it is cooler now so I can use the BOT butt blanket on him!  When it came time to put the girth on Bingo “told” me that he did not want the girth.  Well, I just told him that if I had the balance I would ride him bareback, but since my balance is so bad that I HAD TO put a girth on him.  He grumbled a little bit more, but not terribly.  I used my 46” string girth on Friday, making sure to massage around the back of his right shoulder so he would relax somewhat so I could get the shorter girth to reach the billet straps.

When we got out to the ring it was still drizzling, but not too hard.  I mounted and started walking, and Bingo went into his normal fast walk, like--hey woman, it is raining, aren’t we supposed to get back to barn as fast as possible?  After a while he gave me his normal walk, and we worked on our usual gradual turns around the jumps.  As we walked it started raining harder, and after 20 minutes I looked at the clouds and decided it would just get worse.  I worked hard on making sure the saddle stayed centered on his back, and that I kept weight in my right stirrup iron.  Between the shorter string girth, the arrangement of the shims in the Pegasus pad, and me concentrating on staying centered, my Pegasus Butterfly saddle did not shift to the side as it had on Wednesday.  I decided I had accomplished all that I would be able to that day, and wet and sort of cold I stopped for the day.

Last Sunday I did get to ride Cider, the saddle remained centered and Cider concentrated on making sure to tell me if I got myself off center in the saddle.  My grandson was also riding, on Magic, and Shannon was trying to get Magic to trot.  Eventually she gave up, and decided that since Magic did not want to trot that day it would be safe to take the lead line off.  Guess what happened?  Yes, Magic promptly decided to trot to the gate!  I was so proud of my grandson; he hung onto the saddle and did not scream at all!  Shannon got Magic from the gate, my grandson got to walk around a little bit more and he did not seem too scared.  Later on, when I was telling him how PROUD I was because he did not scream, he told me he was screaming inside his head.  I told him he was a brave boy, and that he had the makings of a good rider!

I did not get to ride Cider today because it rained, and rained, and rained all yesterday.  Of course, the sun is shining now, but there are puddles all around.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran