Rodeo

On Tuesday we were going to work on a cloverleaf pattern. I really wanted to ride Gwene bareback again just to be sure it was not a fluke ride. I had Randy help me again, and she did fairly well. She moved away from me some but Randy and I thought we should just push her through it. When I went to swing over she bunny hopped some, so I got off. I decided I would try the saddle, both Brother Twitchell and Sylvia said that the girl who donated her came in rode her with a saddle no problem after she had not be ridden in several months. I put the saddle on her, I did my best to let her get used to it, but she dance around a bit. Finally we were set and I went to play with her on the ground to make sure she was okay with everything. She did fine, so I started working on the pre-flight check where you put just your foot in the saddle, then your stand. I got that far with no problems, but I decided to call Sylvia over to stand with me. I got on just fine, and Sylvia was going to fix my stirrups when she went off. I have no idea how many times she bucked or any idea what it looked like but my thoughts went like this --- This is okay, I"ll just ride it out---Umm she's not stopping---I need to get off---I dont know how to get off---emergancy dismount---I CANT REMEMBER HOW TO DO THAT--- (then i just let go of everything and closed my eyes and somehow did not end up hung up in my stirrups) ---dont get stepped on!! - ( I curled up into a ball and just tried to hide inside myself until I could not longer hear her behind me).
As I looked up I saw her still bucking and running to the other side of the arena. Randy brought her back to me, and for the rest of class I worked with her on the ground with the saddle still on. She did really well. She would come back to me and we even went over the jump going to the right. For some reason she does just fine going to the left over the jump but not the right. But that day we accomplished that. Later I asked her to go over it going right again and she did no problem.
It is possible that the reason why she bucked is her back is hurting and that was the only way she knew how to tell me it hurt. It could also be that she was being dominant, but she has not been that dominant with me before, so it would be very surprising if that was the culprit to her behavior.