by lrrstudios » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:04 pm
First Touch-
I walked up to the large round pin which used to be empty. Now, standing in the center of it was a Nera that my cousin brought in for me to work with. I approached the fence to watch what the gelding would do and what his reaction to me would be. He approached me curiously sensing my shiny class ring. I looked back up at the face of my boy standing over me. He started to lick the ring and try to take it off my hand. I calmly pulled my hand back as he returned back to the center. I threw out a piece of chicken to the center to see if he would eat it. He scarfed it down in less than a minute. I set up the fencing leading to the worn down grey barn. Inside, there was a nice, cozy stall waiting for the new boy with my other Neras. I opened up the ring gate and allowed him to go into the stall. I closed the door behind him and noticed that he was shivering. Once I put the fencing back, I grabbed my dragon blanket set and put it on him. He followed me as I tried to exit his stall. I closed it once again so that he couldn't escape. I looked back at him and noticed that he looked cute in the costume. This gave me the name idea of my favorite dragon character, Spyro.
In the morning, I saw that Spyro was laying down in his stall sleeping. He must have heard me filling up his water bucket because he stood with a jolt. Spyro looked at me with thanks for the blanket set last night. I went back to the tack/feed room to grab some of the meaty oats. I dumped it into his bucket and closed the miniature barred window that was made for filling up the buckets. My boy came over and started eating right away. Once again, he sensed my ring and tried to get to it. This time, I reached up for his long face to stroke him. He stood calmly still looking at the ring. I tossed a treat into the fluffy bedding covering the bottom of the stall to thank him for letting me pet him. I went back to the tack room to grab his tack.
First Saddle-
I came back out of the tack room with the lime green halter for my new Nera. I cracked open the stall door so that I could fit in. I placed the lead rope on his back. Spyro tossed his head in the air, not liking the rope on his back. I rubbed it up and down his sides until he calmed down. He slowly calmed down to wear I could put it on his back without throwing his head. I put his nose through the nose straps on the halter. Here, he tried to bite me. I patted his side and told him, "No." He stopped and let me clip his halter onto his head.
Now, I was trying to lead him out of the barn. He was very stubborn at first. I tried again, but he seemed to not want to leave his stall. I thought of something else that I could do. Then, I remembered how he liked shiny things. So, I pulled out a quarter and let Spyro sense it. He licked at it as I was starting take some steps towards the round ring. He followed, trying to get it out of my grip. I tied him up to the tack-up post outside the arena.
Spyro stood still as I walked back into the barn to try to get his tack. When I returned, he was sniffing at a lizard on the ground. The lizard licked his muzzle and squirmed away at my sight. Spyro looked up at me as if I was crazy. I started to think that he liked reptiles. I used the same method as with the halter. I rubbed the saddle pad all over him until he was used to it. Then I let him sniff the saddle before I put it on his back. He stood stiff legged as I was strapping the girth around him. I let him out into the arena with bags of grain on his back (weight training so he would be more used to my weight.) Spyro was standing in the center, as if he couldn't move. I made a clucking sound to see if he would move around. He started to do a slow walk and eventually cantered around the pin. I repeated the saddle and bags of grain for weeks before I decided to get onto his back.
First Ride-
I walked Spyro over to the mounting block and gently got into the saddle on his back. Then, I walked him around in the large sized arena to warm him up so that he wouldn't get sour muscles. Then, I started to trot around and over ground poles. Spyro stopped right in front of the poles and high legged, stepped over the poles so he wouldn't trip. I repeated the walking over the poles until he was comfortable enough to trot over them. I took a canter around the arena once. Then, I tried to canter over the poles. He jumped over all of the poles as if he were an Olympian Horse. I nearly took a tumble into the dirt of the arena floor. I grabbed the saddle and fixed my seating. Spyro looked back at me to be sure I was fine before walking on. I tried the poles again. This time, he cantered over them two at a time. I went back through with him two more times before he decided to go over them one at a time at a canter. I dismounted him to set up a low cross rail and five cavalettis. I started off by walking him over the jumps to reassure him that he would be okay if he went over them and that I also had confidence in him. I tried it at a trot. One jump at a time, he cleared all of the cavalettis. Next, I decided that I would try the cross rail, which was a bit taller than the cavalettis. I again walked the gelding over it so that he could get used to the size of it. I tried to trot him over it, and we cleared it with a bunny hop jump type. He acted like the jump was four feet high instead of one foot. I finally tried it at a canter. We were about to clear the jump before Spyro decided to take a surprise turn and throw me off. I mounted back up onto his back and tried again. This time, he stopped before the jump. This time atleast I managed to stay onto my tall boy. I decided that I would try one more time before I would call it quits for the day so that he wouldn't get too tired. We approached the jump as Spyro decided to slow to a trot to jump it. I knew that he would need work on jumping, but that could wait until later.
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I would like to call him Spyrro