First ride on Bourbon

I've been taking things very slowly with Bourbon, both for his sake and my own (considering that he has bucked off two other people).  Today was our first ride.  We just worked on giving to the bit and leg pressure at a walk in the round pen - he was fabulous.  He stood perfectly still for saddling and mounting - we do need to work on accepting the bridle/bit but that will come.  Tomorrow I plan to set up some obstacles in the arena, just to keep things kind of interesting as we work on control at the walk.  In case I haven't explained before, Bourbon is extremely green and hasn't been worked consistently since he was broke as a 3 year old - he'll be 7 in February.

He looks so good in lime :)

 Afterwards, I headed out to Lithia to see an Appy/Arab mare.  Her name is Ginger and she's possibly the pushiest horse I've ever had to deal with - in fact, the first time I tried to get acquainted with her, she threatened to run me over.  Since then, the owner has arranged for 30 days of training so I went to see how she's progressing.  She has much more 'give' in the round pen and didn't try to run the trainer down - a marked improvement.  Ginger's dam is boarded at the trainer's facility and was supposedly the same way.  She was put through some training and is now very nice mare being ridden by a young girl who adores her.  I believe Ginger has a lot of potential.  One thing I know for sure is that she has heart.  I'll go out again next week to see her and get an update on how she's doing - this may be the one. 

Notice the rivulets of sweat streaming down her legs - it took an hour to get a modicum of respect. Yep, heart (known as extreme stubbornness when working against you).