Riding with Mom

I am the only horse person in my immediate family, with a sister who's allergic, brothers who claim to be scared, and busy parents who's interests do not include equines. Fortunately it is an indulgent family, at times, and I got the chance to take my mom riding this weekend when she visited!! She hasn't ridden in years, in fact not since I took her and my step-dad out at the trail riding ranch I worked at as a teenager. I hadn't been scheming it for this visit but she showed up with heeled work boots, so we HAD to go :-)

Mom and I with Blaze and Scrappy

 Blaze and Scrappy are both lovely guys but the bar is seriously raised when you put your non-rider mother up on a horse, so I was 95% confident in them and 5% holding my breath.  We cruised a couple miles around the neighborhood with the geldings and the boys were very well behaved for horses fit enough to jam 30 and 50 miles, out doing a quiet walkabout!

Ma and Blaze, a beautiful autumn morning scene

Scrappy was walking out really briskly and Blaze felt the need to do some short trots to catch up, but my mom handled it well and I just love this photo, seems to me she has a great natural seat and good handle on Blaze!

There were some horses in a new spot when we got back to the short section of paved road to home so we dismounted and hand walked the boys, and good thing, because more horses came charging through the noisy brush to the fence and Blaze got a little, ahem, frisky. I saw him start trotting in hand with my mom and quickly handed Scrappy over to her. Scrappy was a total gentleman for her while  I had a discussion with Blaze, who piaffed and launched around me in circles until we were out of sight of the fence, where upon he promptly quieted to his normal Blaze self. Silly boy.

Mom leading Scrappy in a flurry of falling leaves

I found this great rope Indian bridle/sidepull headstall used, and it was great for Scrappy yesterday. It fit him well and he was responsive and happy in it, unlike a few other bitless set ups I've tried. He definitely tells me whether he likes the headgear or not, and he seemed quite content in this low profile set up:

 What a special experience to be out riding in the gorgeous autumn with my mom and beloved geldings. The boys made me proud and my mom wasn't even sore after a few miles ride!