Introducing Tessa

Very quickly, I realized that riding once a week was not going to be enough so I signed up for 2 lessons a week. By the 2nd month of riding, I decided I wanted to part-board a horse for the summer.

I really liked Duchess, Whim, Koby, Cayenne, and Sasha. To be honest, I liked every single one of the horses that I tried. It was really hard to choose. The barn owner was a true believer that you need to find the 'one' before you decide and I took this to heart.

One lesson in early May while I was riding Candy, I looked over at the other rider in the lesson and she was riding a very pretty chestnut horse that I hadn't seen before. Her name was Tessa. The coach was explaining to the rider that Tessa was on the obese side and that she was one of her laziest horses. The rider seemed to have her number though as she prettily trotted around the ring. While I thought she was a beautiful horse, I was a little worried about the lazy horse comment so I disqualified her from my search before I even tried her.

About a month later, the coach asked me to ride Tessa since she needed the workout. I went back to the barn a little worried. I really didn't know what to expect and I was worried that she would embarrass me in the lesson by not cooperating. With reserve, I found her in the paddock and proceeded to try to bring her into the barn. She didn't move. I tried again. Nothing. I tried changing directions. I tried talking to her. Still nothing. Finally, I remembered watching another rider with a stuck horse threaten them with the lead rope. With a heavy heart, I tried it. I barely touched her but it worked and finally she walked on.

Once in the barn, she was a breeze! To be honest, she barely needed to be groomed. I discovered later that she rarely rolls around in the paddock. She helped me lift her hooves off the ground for hoof picking. She stood very still while I brushed her. She liked to sniff the brushes before I groomed her with them. Putting the saddle on her was easy. Tightening her girth was easy. My impression of her was quickly changing.

After putting her bridle on, I took her out to the riding ring. The coach had me take a bigger crop for the lesson. She explained that while she suggests that her riders coddle most of her horses to get them to work well in the lesson, Tessa needed a person that takes control with some force. I really don't like to use crops but I did what I was told to do. Luckily, it worked and Tessa was great in the lesson! Jumping was a bit rough but timing is an issue with me.

At the end of the lesson, I was telling people how much fun I'd had with her. I was surprised! She had nice movement and she really wasn't as hard headed as I was led to believe.


In the next lesson, Tessa was assigned to me again. This time, I used a normal sized crop and I barely used it. She did what I asked of her for the most part and we had fun! I was sold. This was the horse that I wanted to part-board. Only one snag, her owner rode her on Wednesdays so I could only ride her 2 days of the week. I decided to ride Duchess on my third day of the week. I had my 2 favourite horses to ride every week. I was so excited for July to begin!