First Riding Lessons for the New Teams

This weekend I was able to teach a couple riding lessons, and my guinea pigs for the first lessons of the new year were Alex and Mark.  This wonderful couple has been very dedicated to their horsemanship instruction, and have made great progress with my lesson horses over the last year and a half.  Now that they have their beautiful loafing shed and paddocks nearly ready at their house just east of Bit of Honey Training, they were ready to buy their horses.  It made things so simple and smooth when Alex and Mark assigned me the responsibility of finding and selecting their first horses.  I was fortunate to have two ideal horses waiting in the wings, ready to be sold by other clients of mine.

First was Dancer.  I've known Dancer since she was a yearling, and she's about eleven now.  I did all her early training, and then my hay supplier in Wyoming purchased her.  He hasn't needed her recently as he was able to handle the ranch work load with his other horses, so I asked if we could purchase her and bring her back to Bit of Honey.  She returned in December, and I got two rides on her just before I started having back problems.  Alex adores her.  They have spent the last six weeks getting to know each other, grooming, and doing ground work in preparation for their first ride together.

Second we have Rush.  I had him in mind for some time, and when I contacted my client in Denver who owned him, she said that she wasn't using him much and she would be willing to sell him to us.  Rush came home with me from a horse show in Denver just before Christmas, and I got one schooling ride on him just days before my back quit on me.  Mark gets along with Rush wonderfully, and has also been grooming and doing ground work with him while he and Alex have patiently waited for me to be able to do some riding instruction.

I'm finally mobile and able to work a little, thanks to the acupuncture and e-stim treatments I've had.  Saturday we planned to do two private lessons, one each for Mark and Alex with their new mounts.  They were private lessons in that they were riding one at a time, but we had a good group of Bit of Honey folks here cheering.  It's so fun to ride with the crew commenting on how nicely you fit your new horse, how well suited you are to each other, and what a nice moving animal you bought!   The lessons went really smoothly.  Alex and Dancer make a great pair, and Mark and Rush's temperaments fit together so well.  I look forward to many more fun lessons and eventually trail rides with this group, and I feel like patting myself on the back for yet again making a nice match!  As a bonus, I didn't have any leg pain after standing and teaching for two hours, so I'm calling this a rollicking success.