Cowboy Dan

Earlier this year (sometime in the summer), Jeff brought Daniel out to the barn to go for a little ride with me on Cody. Daniel was pretty quiet and content riding around in circles in the arena. And then we went to take him off the horse and he got upset. So I decided since he seemed pretty into it and I teach riding lessons to other people’s kids, why not start Daniel on some short lessons at least until it gets too cold to be in the barn.

So a few weeks ago we started heading out to the barn once a week and letting Daniel ride Axel. Axel has been lame now for a few years due to arthritis but keeping him moving is good for him. He’s been telling me he’s neglected lately by trying to climb in my pocket when I go out to get Cody. Daniel’s not heavy enough to make a difference on Axel’s back. So it seemed like a perfect match.
The first week we just had Daniel ride bareback but Axel’s so huge Daniel could hardly stay in the middle so I grabbed his little saddle for our future visits. The first couple rides Daniel made it for almost 10 minutes but our last few rides he’s only made it about 5 minutes. But considering his age I don’t expect him to have much more of an attention span.

He’s really catching on fast though. He tells Axel “GO” when he wants him to move and he’ll pick up the reins when we tell him to. Usually he holds onto the saddle horn with one hand (don’t worry, we’ll fix that when he gets a little older). Our only issue right now is that when the horse stops Daniel decides that he’s done and tries to get off. So thus some of our lessons are very short.

I usually have him help groom a little before he rides and clip the reins on the halter and we had him sweep the aisle after riding. You gotta learn all the chores not just the fun part ;)