London's first ride

My plan was only to take one horse to restart with winter quickly approaching. I had told myself take the older horse because he will be easy and it’s not fun starting a 3yr in the middle of winter I caved because I really just couldn’t wait to see what London was all about so here I am starting a 3yr with winter on the way.

London came off the track in November of 2010 after a very unsuccessful three starts. He was quite slow. He had hung out at another farm before we could take him at our layup farm. He’s basically done nothing since a year ago but be a horse.

I was slightly concerned he may be silly because he’s young and nobody had sat on him or really done anything with him in over a year. I got a glimpse of his quiet personality during our little free jump session and I’m happy to say our first ride went great. He has a great brain!

I lunged him a bit and remembered he has no clue how to lunge. Ha, something to work on. I really couldn’t get him to move much so I thought well here goes nothing. He stood perfectly for me to get on and Kurt walked us a lap around the ring. Right as he let me go, Junior started ripping and running in the field in front of the riding ring. London just stood and watched but I decided to hop off just in case. No point in pushing my luck!

Kurt captures his idiot horse and I get back on London who was a bit perplexed by the whole thing. He was a little slow at first and I was trying to be quiet but send him forward without overdoing it. You just never know much about these guys so I’m always cautious with my legs at first. I just use a little smooch and cluck and he went on like a good boy. I kept some fingers in my neck strap as we went around but he was awesome. My ring is pretty spooky and he didn’t get bothered by anything.

Normally I wouldn’t canter but things were going well so I did have a little canter both directions. The canter is lovely! They haven’t been getting much turnout due to rain/mud so I was super impressed with how relaxed he was about it all. He has no muscle so he can’t hold it and it’s a struggle to pick it up but totally normal.

He was fussy about the bit so I will try something new on him. I use the herm sprenger duo for a first ride because it’s really soft. Some horses love the mullen mouth but some don’t care for it. He just had his teeth done this week too so he could have been a bit sensitive.

Here is some video

I think this horse is really special.  I like them all but some horses come in and you just know they have all the right pieces to go into upper level careers. I know it all looks rough right now but the basics that you need are all there. Now it’s just putting in all the mileage. I have a feeling somebody will snap him up quick and that is okay with me. I just want to ride him a few more time

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