It's Been A While

Since I backed Famous. This August, a month prior to the show and this September, the month of the show, I stopped riding so I could focus and put the spit and polish on my driving. Once the show was over I put my boy on break. Today I rode. I had a few butterflies fluttering in my stomach, evil butterflies with great big fangs. As a matter of history Fame has a tendancy to get spazzy after a long break.
Due to the construction we are short on set of cross ties(3) which were being used to groom horses being turned out and tack R’s bunch of babies. Famous was polite until I left him to pack my tack to the other end of the barn. Head over the stall and calling after me in a "What gives lady!! You are supposed to take me with you!!" fashion. I shortly returned to his stall and was greeted by a nicker. I clip the lead rope to his nylon halter and lead him to where and unoccupied cross-tie awaited. He lunged at the treat buckets only once. I poped his halter and give him a great big "LEAVE IT!" He snorts but leaves the goodies alone. It took awhile to teach my little cookie monger what "leave it" meant. He’s usually pretty good in the cross ties, but he was doing a little dance today. I flop my old hunt seat saddle on my old saddle seat horse(I keep telling myself that I’m going to buy a new saddle). To his credit I have never had problems tacking Fame.
We walked around the grounds a lot before I was brave enough to mount. I have this great box that I use as a mounting block. Very sturdy and with nothing he could catch his leg on(I’ve seen some horrible accidents at the shows regarding horse and step stools), plus I can keep all my grooming stuff, boots(his and mine), lunge line, and my extra bits in it. My head stall fits in there too and it’s a nice size for a saddle rack, if I have to carry all the stuff at once I can...
Anyway once I am up he settles instantly, which is a nice change, since he used to do a whole lot of hopping around. Em sets my magical box off to the side. In to the arena we go. I was pleased with how good he was. W/T/C inside the arena and on the path outside. It was a beautiful ride. We nearly got ran over by a couple of babies but overall I felt good about it. We'll begin lessons again in a couple of weeks.