My first ride of the year lasted all of about five minutes. No, I did not get bucked off but I am fairly certain I would have had I not gotten off and decided to lunge – which also proved to be a little tricky today.

Chance was convinced that there were monsters somewhere in and around the arena, and I could not convince him otherwise. Usually when he is acting wild and spooky, I trot him around a couple of times and he gives it up. Not today. I could just tell that he wasn’t going to settle down easily, and he was only supposed to have a light hack since he had his injections a few days ago. He clearly had other plans though. I put the lunge line on him and sent him off. He turned around and took off. I lost him. He then took of like a mad thing galloping around the arena. I ran over to shut the gate, as I was fairly certain that he was not going be caught easily. Luckily he is smart enough to not step on the lunge line attached to him, so he stopped once it got wrapped around him and my trainer was able to catch him.

I managed to lunge him without him trying to change direction again, and he eventually settled down.

What a way to start the year! I guess he is just really excited about all of the possibilities of 2016. Hopefully he will be ride-able tomorrow!