Lucy...

Here is a short video of Lara having a ride on Lucy. Lucy has had maybe half a dozen rides...

I am still playing with Lucy in my 'spare time', which there never seems to be enough of! She is such a cutie, and quick! Last week I had her out on a 22' rope and she was galloping, bucking and kicking and having a great old time, then she screeched to a slide stop, picked up a hula hoop in her mouth, and stood there and looked at me and asked what I thought... I thought, 'Oh, man. This play is really cool on the ground, but how is our obedience going to go when I am riding her?'.
I had a little play with her this afternoon, and she was lovely and calm and soft, so I took her in to the round yard and hopped on and had a little ride. At first she was surprised, and kept turning around and looking at me, no bareback pad or saddle, but she soon relaxed.
I quickly found out that Lucy is really confident with me up there! She has had a few rides, but hasn't really had to do anything yet, just accept the rider. Since she is confident now, it is time to ask a little of her. If we sat there too long without doing anything, she would reach around and grab the fringe of my chaps, so we got busy really quickly!
We didn't do much, she offered to put her nose on or pick up everything she could find in the round yard. I asked her to stick on the rail for a while, she obliged, but thought that was pretty boring and much prefered her idea of checking stuff out. We started doing some disengaging hindquarters and bringing her front end through which she found really easy.
She is soooo soft! When I go to disengage her I just have to barely think about it, turn my toe out and she floats around! When I ask her back on to the rail it is a mere tightening of my little finger.
We only had a short session, since she is so keen to play, and is confident and eager, I want to keep it that way!!