07/31/2026
Cervantes still exists 😂
I know it's been a hot minute since I've posted about Cervantes, but I promise he still exists, he's still very much loved, and apparently he's been using his time off to become ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE.
This baby turned 2 on May 7th.
I measured him yesterday.
16.2 hands. At TWO. 🤦♀️😂
Cervantes has had the last few months mostly to just be a horse. He went through one of those wonderfully awkward young-horse phases where his butt was somewhere in the next zip code, so instead of feeling like I needed to keep "training," I left him alone.
Grow. Eat grass. Be a baby. We'll pick it back up later.
Well... later has arrived.
He's looking much more balanced again, so I'm planning to spend the next couple of weeks doing some basic work with him before he gets another stretch of vacation.
And when I say work, I mean boring stuff.
Ground manners. Moving his feet. Giving to pressure. Lunging. Paying attention to me even when the other horses are acting like escaped circus animals. Standing quietly. Wearing his tack. Mounting block work.
Yesterday started a little chaotic. Cervantes is a very sensitive, reactive horse and he processes things differently than Obsidian does. Add a few months off and other horses creating unnecessary drama, and we had to have a brief conversation about the fact that yes, darling, the rules still apply. 😂
But once we got that sorted?
He was fantastic.
And this is how I introduce being mounted.
I bring the mounting block over. He stands. I put weight in the stirrup. Lean across him. Get back down. Swing a leg over. Swing it back. Sit for a few seconds. Get off.
Then we switch sides.
Left side, right side, mount one side and sometimes dismount the other. Move the block. Repeat.
I don't want mounting to become some Big Important Event™.
I want it to become boring.
Human climbs around on me. Human sits on me. Human gets off. Cool. Are we done yet?
😂
There's no rush to ride him around right now. He's TWO. He's enormous, but he's still a baby, and there's a whole lot of growing happening inside that giant body.
So for now, I want the foundation.
I want a horse who stands quietly to be mounted from either side. Who isn't bothered by weight shifting over his back. Who understands basic cues. Who can focus on me when things around him get exciting. Who learns that new things aren't something to fear or fight—just something to think through.
I'll probably work with him lightly for the next couple of weeks, remind him of all these little pieces, introduce a few more, and then...
back out he goes.
Grow some more. Be a horse. Let everything marinate.
There's plenty of time.
And man, am I excited about this one.
Cervantes may not show up on this page as often as Obsidian does, but that certainly doesn't mean he's any less important to me. Obsidian and I have a different relationship because I've been there since the day he was born. Cervantes came into my life later, and we're building our own story together.
He's sensitive. He's thoughtful. He's ridiculously beautiful. He's already inscribed with ANCCE, and eventually we'll work toward his revision and see where the future takes us.
For now?
He's a giant two-year-old baby standing in a pasture learning that Mom climbing onto him from every conceivable direction is apparently just part of life. 😂
16.2 hands at TWO YEARS OLD.
Cervantes, sir.
I think you're big enough.
You can stop now...he's absolutely not going to stop, is he? 🤦♀️😂
