So many firsts...

Mostly for Vegas, but one for me and Ruby also.

I knew when I got to the barn this morning what I wanted to accomplish: Vegas calming carrying a heavy Western saddle.  If she did really well, the plan was to pony her around the arena and through an obstacle (pom-poms tied to two jump standards, making a gate) from Ruby.

I am so thankful that my husband went along today.  He's lukewarm about the horses, so it was a treat to have him (and an extra set of hands) at the barn today. 

First we pulled Ruby from her stall, got her groomed, put her boots on and set her up with a hay net.  Then we went to get Vegas.  She is still not the best at tying so I put her on one of the slipping rings with a hay net (an attempt to set her up for success), then got to grooming her.  She was a bit of a brat about picking up the first hoof, again.  She is used to telling people 'no' for no other reason than she doesn't want to do what they're asking.  Every once in a while, she'll tell me no and expect me to quit -it bugs her to no end that it doesn't work.

After grooming Vegas, I had my husband wait with the horses while I went and got my saddle.  He removed Vegas' hay bag so she would watch me tack Ruby up.  When I was done with Ruby, I took the Western saddle, etc. out to the round pen then returned to fetched Vegas.  My husband held Ruby outside of the round pen as moral support for Vegas.

I sacked her out with the saddle pad, of which my husband got a few pics before his phone died.

My pockets were bulging with hay cubes - don't judge me :)

Pathetic tail - you can see the mat I've been working on for weeks now.  Slowly but surely, it's coming out. 

You can see that while she wasn't thrilled, she wasn't concerned either.

She did as well with the saddle, not minding the weight or the flapping stirrups.  The thing we are really going to have to work on is the girth - whenever I went to tighten it a bit more, she would take a step back.  When she stopped and stood for me to tighten it a little more, she got praise and a hay cube.  Eventually I got it tight enough that I was sure it wouldn't flip under her belly, so I asked her to move off around the round pen. She didn't offer to buck, so we went to the arena.

First I led Ruby and Vegas around together - if Ruby needed to assert herself, I wanted her to have the opportunity to do it before I climbed on.  She did threaten to kick when Vegas refused to remove her nose from Ruby's butt, but she didn't try to connect and Vegas got the hint.  Chris held Vegas while I mounted Ruby.  I was expecting to need to school her on not trying to go back to the gate, etc. but she just pouted a bit that we were in the arena.  I walked back to Chris and Vegas and grabbed her lead rope.  Things went smoothly, especially considering that none of us have ever ponied or been ponied from.  I'm not dumb enough to think it would have been easy to do out on trail though - Vegas was hanging back a bit and couldn't decide which side to stay on, while Ruby is not the best at neck reining and was irritated that I kept having to twist in the saddle (see aforementioned problems with Vegas).  I decided to take them through the jump standards - Ruby did it like a pro, but Vegas rushed through at the last second so we did it two more times.  After that I hopped down and took Vegas to the mounting steps.  I leaned over the saddle, jumped up on and down, rocked the saddle back and forth all without a reaction.  She did take a step the first time I weighted the stirrup a bit but she wasn't being nasty and stopped when I said 'whoa.'  Again, I considered just throwing my leg over already but the time will come soon enough.  We took the girls back to the barn and fussed over them while untacking.

So, it was a very good day.  The girls were great and my heart swelled up with pride at how Ruby handled ponying Vegas for me - she's been ridden, what, twice in the last six or eight weeks?  And generally she likes to go-go-go, but she walked slowly for me and Vegas and was on her best behavior after she let Vegas know to mind her manners.  I could not ask for a better partner.