Cocoa's First and Red and Snips Second Rides

Today went really well.  Everyone got saddled from the right side including Cocoa who was a little concerned and moved a bit, oh please don't make me have to throw the saddle up there twice, he's the biggest horse.  It's actually easier to put a western saddle on from the right because there's only 1 stirrup to throw over the horse instead of all the rigging and then you're already on the correct side to put the rigging down and only have to change sides once to do it up.  My other reason for saddling from both sides is these horses will be packed and have to have boxes loaded from each side.

Snip and Red each had just a few minutes of ground driving and then I got right on, from both sides again.  You never know when you may have to mount from the right side in the mountains where you want to be on the up hill side. I rode Snip for 10 minutes at the walk riding figure 8's. Go, Stop, Back and Turn on the forehand. What a clever and willing boy.  He was very light both to the legs and the reins.
I also rode Red for 10 minutes.  He was almost as good.  When I dismounted I worked on backing him from the bridle to improve his understanding so hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Cocoa was excellent on the driving reins.  He was the one I originally had trouble steering. His steering was great but his stop was impressive.  He listened to the word whoa and tucked his butt under him. Very athletic for a big horse.  I worked a little on moving his hindquarters with the driving lines.  He scooted a bit at first but he figured it out quickly.  Next I climbed up on the fence and reminded him what it looked like to have me above him.  This horse flinches each time you touch a new part so I was a little worried he wouldn't like the weight in the stirrup but he was really good at being bent around and letting me stand in the stirrup.  I found it a little tricky on the right, apparently my right hip isn't quite as flexible as my left.  I climbed on and off him a couple of times then I climbed on and sat there moving my legs a little on each side and changing his bend.  He was okay with that so I asked him to move and he walked off even better than the other two had. We did a couple of short starts each way then I dismounted and told him how great he was.  If I didn't own 14 horses and had to keep one, he would be the one.