- Journal -
NC Moonlight Maiden
Entry 1: Today, NC Moonlight Maiden came to NightCloud Stables, welcome Mercy! She has quite the unique marking on her forehead, it looks like a half moon! This mare hailed from the mysterious lands of Wales, and was initially a wild mare. She now has come to our farm, green broke for hunter pleasure! Hopefully we can train her to be a great riding mare here at our stables! We are all rooting for you Mercy!
Entry 2: Riding her for the first time was as expected; quite the wild ride! I lunged her with the saddle before getting on her of course. She took no less than 10 seconds to realize what was going on once I got on her and immediately decided that she was better off doing what she wanted to do instead of listening to me. She galloped towards the fence line, I tried to pull my full weight into making her turn so we could go in circles, however the bit that was in her mouth was but a snaffle bit, that was when I realized the people who broke this mare must have used a more harsher bit and failed to tell me. The fencing was coming up fast, and as I thought we were going to go through it, she gracefully cleared the fence. Jumping over was easy for her, staying upright afterwards was not. She wasn't used to the weight of me on her, which brought both her and me tumbling to the grassy landscape underneath us. As she lay there stunned, I took the chance to scramble to my feet and snatch the lead rope off of the fence and latch it onto her halter which was underneath her bridle. She leaped up, looked at me, and pinned her ears at me like it was my fault she wasn't in some field somewhere. I suppose she is right.
Entry 3:This is the second time I was going to ride Mercy, and I was not going to fall for her tomfoolery yet again. I saddled her up in the indoor arena this time. No sun, no fields of grass, nowhere she could run off to. I lunged her for a long time to make sure she was somewhat tired before starting. However, as I was lunging her, something seemed... off. She continuously looked around her surroundings with uncertainty in her eyes, uncharacteristic of her eyes that typically shown of confidence and arrogance. Her ears were a constant whirlwind, flicking back and forth as if she had never heard the sound of sand being thrown around this way. I stopped her, finishing the lunging session. The windows of the arena casted squares of light upon the soft sand while the rest of the area lay somewhat shaded. Sensing that she was uneasy, I lead her around the arena once, to show her there was nothing wrong in this safe space. good thing I did this first before getting on her, she startled at nearly everything that was manmade, so everything. From the squares of light to the gates that were closed. Nothing seemed to make sense to Mercy who had only seen lush meadows and blue skies all of her life. I reassured her in a calm voice that everything was okay, nothing was going to hurt her. I lead her around the arena again, this time she was a bit calmer. She stopped less and shakily made a full circle of the arena without backing up. Once more we went around, I talked little nothings in her ear as we went, she walked with steady steps, not stopping once. Needless to say she was praised heavily for her achievement. I got on her and immediately set off into small circles. I didn't need her to build up that habit of galloping like she did before. Using the bit had little to no effect on her direction, but using my leg was very effective on her. We continued to switch to the other side, walking in small circles. Sometimes she would wobble, like she put her foot in the wrong place, but we eventually got that side to be a nice and fluid. Its good to not go too fast when riding a green broke horse, so we stopped for today. I am proud of her today.