Irish Gets a New Minion

My sister, brother in law and their four kids have come to Nova Scotia for a visit. Her oldest daughter, my niece has the horse bug. I believe her first word was 'pony'. My sister blamed that on me but I really have no  idea what she's talking about *cough*. Caelen has been taking lessons for while now at her home.

Remember my post about my breakthrough with Carmen? Well now let me tell you about Caelen's first ride on Irish. Cynthia rode him first. We wanted to make sure that a) he wouldn't be doing any violent headshaking and b) that the sillies were worked out since he hadn't been ridden for a couple weeks.  We took off the nose band of his bridle and put on his fly mask over top. He was much much better. There were a couple head tosses but nothing too bad.

It was Caelen's turn. I snapped a lead on Irish's bit first to walk them and make sure that nothing would go wrong (I'm very safety concious). Irish seemed fine so I unsnapped the lead. The goal was for Caelen to walk him in a circle but he kept coming to me.

Me: Irish what are you doing? Get back out there. 
Irish: but I like it here with you. It's safer for the foal up on my back. 
Me: cut her some slack and let her steer you
Irish: I'm teaching her. If I do it for free then how does she learn? 
Me: sigh. 

After a bit of negotiating they got it together out on the circle. Irish would dive in every chance he got. Once that was going well Caelen picked up a trot. Irish has a bouncy trot but she was doing well with him. They headed off down the long side of the ring, I saw a switch flip as Irish realized that Caelen weighed no more than a flea. He picked up speed and broke to canter.  wheeeee! com'on kid, let's go. 

shit. I thought.  I'm going to break my niece and my sister is going to kill me. I'll have to change my name and move away. 

But I stayed calm and had Caelen bring him back to trot. As they came back up and headed down the long side I saw Irish get a gleam in his eye again (not that I could see his eye with the mask on but it was there nonetheless) and I dove at his head bringing him up short.

Irish: That was FUN! 
Me: Knock it off she didn't ask you to canter. 
Irish: I'm pretty sure she did. Plus she was fine. You worry too much. We can go again! 
Me: You are going to be the death of me. 

For the record Caelen was fine and unworried. It was all me. She rode him well and we finished up on a good note. Irish really enjoyed being back at work.

I'm an awesome teacher.