A Bright Spot: Riding The World's Best Baby Horse

 First of all... thank you. 

Thank you all so much. 

The outpouring of love and support after I posted about Dino's PSL injury and subsequent retirement touched my heart so much. The text messages, Facebook comments, private messages, and blog comments spurred fresh tears and such great love for my fellow equestrians. You people GET IT. To others it probably looks like the most obnoxious first world problem ever (Oh noooo my giant expensive pet can't fancy prance anymore WHAT A TRAGEDY), but horse people know how much of our hearts are wrapped up in our horses, and how much it hurts to let dreams go. From offers of brunch dates and horses to ride to big hugs while I ugly cry about it, I have appreciated all of your love so, so much. Thank you. 

Moving on to the fun stuff... I've bragged about my vet here before. She is not only an incredible doctor, but also my friend as well as a fellow boarder and dressage queen. (This may embarrass her. Sorry/not sorry. You're amazing and THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW!) She recently purchased a very lovely 3 year old Danish Warmblood gelding as her next dressage superstar, and very generously offered me a ride on him after we diagnosed Dino and got done crying in the barn aisle about it. She's been the only one to sit on him since he arrived a few months ago, and I was really delighted and honored to get to play the role of Different Human On My Back for sweet Basil, aka Best Baby Horse.

Guys it's been... probably over a decade since I last sat on a 3 year old. It is REALLY DIFFERENT than riding a trained horse, let me tell ya. Basil is also quite tall. And a fancy, big, lofty mover. And just a really high quality, beautiful, elegant, purpose-bred dressage horse all the way around. He's honestly kind of the complete opposite of what I'm used to, so after his owner warmed him up, I hopped on prepared to feel completely out of my league. 

Thankfully he's also a REALLY GOOD KID. Basil has absolutely earned his title of Best Baby Horse! His owner walked by our side for the first trip around the arena, and he was completely cool with the whole situation. Thankfully we are about the same size and ride similarly, so hopefully it wasn't too big a change for Basil! After that we headed out on our own and I tried to figure out the controls. 

There are... not a lot of controls on a green-broke three year old, it turns out. And when they're started well by a European dressage trainer and learn to steer off the outside aids, they don't understand what the inside rein means. So when you lose steering and wildly pull on the inside rein to avoid leaving the arena, the baby horse just gets confused and bends into a pretzel. I also discovered that I over-use the inside rein and look down way more than I thought I did. Noted. 

I loved that at only three Basil is so, so balanced for his age and size, and is incredibly attentive to his rider. Any time I tried to use my Trained Horse Tools, he got confused and just stopped all forward motion. So that meant any slight increase of tone in my core, seat, back, or upper arms or change in my balance resulted in Great Confusion from Basil. He also needed a super wide channel to exist in between the reins, and the way I wanted to carry my hands (higher and close together) confused the heck out of him. It took some concentration to remember to hold my hands low and wide to give him more room and confidence! When I was able to ride more simply and clearly for him, Basil marched around happily in his baby understanding of "on the bit" and was delighted to show me how he could do walk/trot transitions, change direction, and do a little cantering. The canter did totally surprise me the first time, though - Basil has a BIG STEP with a lot of power and I was not ready for it! He's going to be an absolute powerhouse when he's older and wiser! He was also totally amenable to me moving his shoulders and haunches around to straighten him, which were buttons I was not expecting him to have installed yet! 

Overall, I was just so darn impressed by Basil. Riding him helped give me some confidence that I'd be able to take on my own young horse someday when I'm ready for one. After years and years of only riding older, trained horses I wasn't sure I had the skill set and bravery to work with a young one, but knowing that three year olds like Basil are out there really made it seem possible! I'd seen him go plenty of times, but to ride him myself really cemented what a smart, enthusiastic, sweet, level-headed horse he is. At one point, a truck pulling a noisy manure spreader clattered down the driveway right past the open arena door, and he didn't even blink. I don't think it ever even occurs to him to spook or try to avoid work. He is the penultimate amateur-friendly, purpose-bred fancy dressage horse, and I am just absolutely THRILLED that he belongs to my vet and friend, who is beyond deserving of such a lovely creature! It was a total delight to ride him, and made a crappy day so much better. I'm so excited to see what they achieve together!