A good time at the barn

This evening the barn held a session for volunteers to get together, socialize a bit, and then get some lessons on handling the horses. We got a demonstration on working with the horses in the round pen and 'joining up' with them, and then we got to try it. I got to try it with Ashley, one of the horses I work with regularly. Then another volunteer got to do the same with her, and we could see the difference in how she reacted because of the differences in the energy we put out - I'm a very calm and quiet person, and she reacted differently to that than she did to the young man's higher energy motions.

Then we got longe line demonstration, and talked about handling the horses on the ground. It was all very good stuff that I hadn't heard before, so I was paying close attention. Then we all got a chance to ride. I sat out the first round to let the teens go first, and most adults rode the second round as well. I got to ride a horse that was new to me because he belonged to one of the staff, and he was just visiting to help out with some big events they were having this week. I had a bit of trouble getting him trotting - his mom said he was lazy - but once we got him going I really enjoyed it, and felt like I was starting to get the hang of riding the trot. I wish I could have kept at it! But since the horses had already worked all day toting kids around at the ranch, we didn't ride too long before giving them a break, cooling them off, and sending them out to pasture to relax for the night. They have a full day of work to do tomorrow :)

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