Okay, so it was as much a solo WALK as it was a solo RIDE, but we got 'er done. With the impending bad weather tomorrow, there really wasn't a whole lot of "solo" about it as the north parking area out at Washoe Lake had 3 trailers there when I first pulled in, about 7 when I set off on the trail, and probably about 10 when we got back, plus other people riding over from local houses. But Diego and I did get a chance to get out on our own for a little bit. Being inspired by my friend Jonni from Texas, who commented that she likes to take the greenies out by themselves so they are more focused on her, I decided that the beach along Washoe Lake would be a great place for a first outing since 1) I'm very familiar with the location, 2) it's nice DEEP sand to cushion any falls and hopefully make for more work for pony and 3) it's very open so any potential spooks can be spotted a long ways coming.
Dig and I got saddled up and ready to go with no issues. He was curious about the other horses but was just standing there checking them out. I did talk with one of the gentleman that pulled in shortly after me, to find out what type of ride they had planned, but they had Pasos and planned on gaiting out quite a bit. Too fast for what we had planned for today. So I set off on foot with the plan to walk him over to the beach and see how things went from there. We made it over the few sand dunes to the lakeshore with no issues. Diego was a little excited by some people walking a dog off in the distance, so I lunged him around me in circles for a few minutes. The fetlock+ deep sand did it's job and it didn't take long before he was huffing and puffing and ready to focus on me. We continued to walk on foot until we passed the 3 people and their dog and then I mounted up.
I realized that my verbal cues must be working when, as I'm getting ready to mount, and telling Diego, "Now you behave, we are just going to WALK. That's it, just walk," and he proceeded to walk off, just like I'd asked him to (duh!). =) So, when I was finally able to keep my mouth shut, I mounted up and off we went. And he did REALLY good! He stopped to check some stuff out now and then (driftwood, etc) but overall was very well behaved. He was walking out pretty nice, almost offered a trot a few times but I didn't want to add any speed as I was worried I would get more than I wanted. =) He kept it sane and together. I will admit that **I** spooked once at some birds that flew out of the lake. Diego was like "Huh?" and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. =P
We ended up riding almost a mile down the beach all by ourselves. Then we turned around to come back to the trailer and "Oh look Mom! There's other horses down there!" So I got off and we walked/pranced our way all the way back to the trailer. He just wanted to go catch up with the other horses too much. One group of 4 riders had some dogs with them as well and Diego spooked at the dogs (Argh. I can tell this is going to be a problem). He backed up some but not too much and did stay facing them. I don't know where this dog paranoia is coming from. He and our dog Copper are like two grumpy old men together - Copper enters corral to eat poop, Diego puts his head down and sneers at him, Copper barks at Diego and goes back to eating poop. Done. So why are other dogs creepy??? Once we get going on the trail good, Copper will have to start joining us on rides if the old man is up to it (Copper's 13 this year).
So I ended up walking all the way back to the trailer. Dig would have liked to have gone faster, thankyouverymuch, but oh well. It was a good lesson on leading nicely next to Mom and not getting too far ahead or you have to stop and back-up and then wait. I need to find some friend's to go out on some slow trail rides with. I just wish my schedule was a little more predictable so I could have a set weekly day/time. Oh well, it will all work out eventually.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Finding the Holes
Another weekend out at Bartley working in the arena. "Cowboy Bob" wanna-be Natural Horse guru and his clueless girlfriend where there again. Just us three on a somewhat windy late-Sunday afternoon. This was the first kind of "bad" weather I'd ridden Dig in that I can remember. I didn't really lunge him at all before riding this time, he was being really relaxed and there wasn't a whole lot else going on. Just a few circles around at the ends of my reins and I hopped up on. Thoughts from this weekend's ride:
- He's really solid at the walk, just putters right along where I point him. Working on some light lateral movements off my legs, he seems to be catching on to the idea of that. He's working well off my weight/seat bone shifts as well - all at the walk.
- Good solid stop and a very nice back. He caught on VERY quick to the "back-up after you stop" request and now will back very softly and readily, sometimes without waiting for me to ask - so need to go back to just whoa and "hold" now so he's not second-guessing me.
- Still balking at times - I'm not sure what's causing this. I want to figure out WHY he may be doing it before I resort to something like carrying a crop or switching out to my split reins to pop him with. I think sometimes it's because he's not sure, and other times he's being stubborn.
- Speaking of stubborn - we had a little "NoIdontwanna" moment today which involved planting his feet and refusing to move forward. He started backing up to evade me so I backed him in a full 360 then stopped him, turned his head and asked for his hip. He took a couple of steps around and I found that "forward" gear again.
- I think we're both VERY bored with riding in the arena. =(
Worked on trotting some more again today. He gave me about 2 good laps around in between several 1/2 to 1/3 laps that involved stopping and such. Not sure if he's just being lazy and unmotivated or still feeling unbalanced/not sure of himself. Probably need to spend some time in the round pen so I don't need to worry about him bolting off or having to steer around corners and just let him (and me) get the feel of things.
Cowboy Bob was as amusing as last time. His horse is such a quiet dead-head, I don't get what he's doing really. He spends a lot of time on the ground just walking around with the horse following him on its leadrope. They were going to go on a ride around the park, and I *almost* asked if I could join them, but then I watched him spend 15 minutes (literally) getting ready to mount his horse. They then rode down to the end of the big field (still within eyesight, about 100 yards or so) and sat on the horses down there for another good 15+ minutes. Then turned around and came back. Okay... Chatted with him briefly as we were getting ready to leave, he claims to be from Texas and was upset because there were posted park/arena hours and the ranger came around and very nicely asked us to start getting ready to go so she could close the main gate at dark as planned. Considering the arenas are supposed to close at 4:30 and it was probably around 5:00 when she came by, I was already untacking. Cowboy was upset because there were hours - I told him "at least we have this really nice arena to ride in for free." I guess back in TEXAS where he's from - it's all private arenas/ranches and you just get in with someone and ride at their place whenever you feel like it??? Whatever. There is a private ranch with a covered lighted arena in Washoe Valley, but you have to pay $5 to use it. I'll take the free one, thanks!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Back in the Saddle
Yay! Back to riding! For having 4 full weeks off (last ride was Sunday, 1/11) Diego did really good. Again, we went over to Bartley Ranch and rode in their smaller arena. Back to basics, I lunged him for about 5 minutes or so to make sure no craziness was going to occur and then hopped on. He seemed to not have any lapses and picked-up right where we had left off. What a good boy.
I met a new friend today. She was riding her Morgan mare in the large arena working on some dressage exercises. When she was done, I asked if I could join her and her mare on a hand-walk around the park. She asked me if I did endurance (I did have on my zilco breastcollar and beta reins - plus the bumper stickers on my trailer) and it turns out that she rode an LD last year and wants to do a few more this year. Very cool! She's planning on riding the LD at Rides of March for her first this season. I plan on being out there as a volunteer. So we exchanged phone numbers, hopefully we can get together to ride sometime in the future. Not sure how she would feel about babysitting Diego and me, so I'd like to get him going more reliably first.
I worked on some more trotting under saddle when we got back from our walk. He'll only go about 1/2 way around the small arena before stopping suddenly. He either gets busy gawping at something or I think when I start to post he feels off balance and stops. Hhhmmm.... Need to work this out. I've tried just sitting his trot but as he gets going faster he starts to bounce me more and then just stops again.
It was good to be riding again. =)
I met a new friend today. She was riding her Morgan mare in the large arena working on some dressage exercises. When she was done, I asked if I could join her and her mare on a hand-walk around the park. She asked me if I did endurance (I did have on my zilco breastcollar and beta reins - plus the bumper stickers on my trailer) and it turns out that she rode an LD last year and wants to do a few more this year. Very cool! She's planning on riding the LD at Rides of March for her first this season. I plan on being out there as a volunteer. So we exchanged phone numbers, hopefully we can get together to ride sometime in the future. Not sure how she would feel about babysitting Diego and me, so I'd like to get him going more reliably first.
I worked on some more trotting under saddle when we got back from our walk. He'll only go about 1/2 way around the small arena before stopping suddenly. He either gets busy gawping at something or I think when I start to post he feels off balance and stops. Hhhmmm.... Need to work this out. I've tried just sitting his trot but as he gets going faster he starts to bounce me more and then just stops again.
It was good to be riding again. =)
Monday, February 2, 2009
Going Again
So Diego's pretty much had the past couple of weeks off since my accident. I've been out to feed and scratch on him, but haven't really done much else. Since I haven't been able to fully close my jaw since my accident, I've been very leery of riding and accidentally "clicking" my teeth together. Just seemed safer and easier to not worry about riding. But I was feeling sorry for the boy so decided to take Diego out yesterday to at least stretch his legs for a while.
Hooked the trailer up and headed over to Bartley Ranch, our closest public arena. There were two other trailers there when we arrived, the people were riding in the smaller arena and looked to be just finishing up. I turned Diggy out in the big arena where he RAN, RAN, RAN! He was having **such** a good time, you could tell he really does love to run! I was cracking up laughing at him. He would make eye-contact with me each time he would come by, then dig in deeper and take off sprinting again. Silly boy!
After he'd tired himself out some, I caught him and decided to take him for a walk around the park, even though my husband had forbid me from going on unsupervised walks anymore. =P Dig was a little excited since he'd just been running around, but I made sure to walk him CORRECTLY on the right amount of lead rope, so we didn't have any issues. He did spook some at a guy on a bike (reminds me I need to get MY bike out and ride around by his corral) and spooked a little at two ladies jogging toward us (???). We walked all around by the old farm equipment and over by a playground where the kids were on swings and those plastic animals on a spring in the ground. Just stood and watched them until they were sufficiently boring that grazing became more appealing. Then walked back to the trailer, trotting a bit in hand (like a VERY good boy) across the gravel parking area and walking like a gentleman beside me across the wooden bridge.
Got back to the trailer and lots more people had shown up. Some cowboy-wanna be in his little "outfit" complete with full chaps, bandanna, hat on stampede string hanging down his back, not on his head and his clueless girlfriend. You could tell he thought he was some NH guru, although none of his dogs could walk properly on a leash and I think he spent more time talking to his horse about stuff than actually DOING anything. There was also two girls in they're early 20's or so either running their horses around or riding in the arena. A young girl (10?) on a pony having a barrel racing lesson, the mini horse the came with the pony, and two other younger girls riding around on bikes. So Diego got tied to the trailer, in the middle of all this, to sit back and "just deal with it." He did good. I found out he was more spooky about the dogs than what any of the other horses were doing, even when barrel pony came charging up to the fence right behind his butt. Dig would kind of spook in place, kind of hunker down but not go anywhere. I sat in the shade in the tack room and talked with him on occasion and just watched all the goings-on.
Once he was settled and didn't seem bothered by anything, we walked around in the immediately vicinity of the trailers a little more and I went over to one of the large mounting stands they have constructed and worked on parking Diggy in various spots and positions. He did really well with all of that. I thought about saddling up and riding in the little arena, but wanted to get home to watch the Super Bowl so scratched that idea. Going to hopefully do a couple little rides at home this week and (if the weather cooperates), we have plans for another ride with Beth on Friday.
** Oh! I had a dentist appt this afternoon and have a tooth update! I'm going to be losing the canine on the bottom right for sure, that root is broke all the way across, no saving it. All the other teeth looked really good and my roots on my incisors were much longer with the closer more detailed x-rays than they looked in the panoramic, and all of them look very healthy for now. They ground down a little of the composite material on the front of my bottom teeth so I can now close my jaw! Yay! I also discovered last week that I can chew regular food, as long as I cut it up really small first (no biting), so I'm off my smoosh food diet. Double-Yay! **
Hooked the trailer up and headed over to Bartley Ranch, our closest public arena. There were two other trailers there when we arrived, the people were riding in the smaller arena and looked to be just finishing up. I turned Diggy out in the big arena where he RAN, RAN, RAN! He was having **such** a good time, you could tell he really does love to run! I was cracking up laughing at him. He would make eye-contact with me each time he would come by, then dig in deeper and take off sprinting again. Silly boy!
After he'd tired himself out some, I caught him and decided to take him for a walk around the park, even though my husband had forbid me from going on unsupervised walks anymore. =P Dig was a little excited since he'd just been running around, but I made sure to walk him CORRECTLY on the right amount of lead rope, so we didn't have any issues. He did spook some at a guy on a bike (reminds me I need to get MY bike out and ride around by his corral) and spooked a little at two ladies jogging toward us (???). We walked all around by the old farm equipment and over by a playground where the kids were on swings and those plastic animals on a spring in the ground. Just stood and watched them until they were sufficiently boring that grazing became more appealing. Then walked back to the trailer, trotting a bit in hand (like a VERY good boy) across the gravel parking area and walking like a gentleman beside me across the wooden bridge.
Got back to the trailer and lots more people had shown up. Some cowboy-wanna be in his little "outfit" complete with full chaps, bandanna, hat on stampede string hanging down his back, not on his head and his clueless girlfriend. You could tell he thought he was some NH guru, although none of his dogs could walk properly on a leash and I think he spent more time talking to his horse about stuff than actually DOING anything. There was also two girls in they're early 20's or so either running their horses around or riding in the arena. A young girl (10?) on a pony having a barrel racing lesson, the mini horse the came with the pony, and two other younger girls riding around on bikes. So Diego got tied to the trailer, in the middle of all this, to sit back and "just deal with it." He did good. I found out he was more spooky about the dogs than what any of the other horses were doing, even when barrel pony came charging up to the fence right behind his butt. Dig would kind of spook in place, kind of hunker down but not go anywhere. I sat in the shade in the tack room and talked with him on occasion and just watched all the goings-on.
Once he was settled and didn't seem bothered by anything, we walked around in the immediately vicinity of the trailers a little more and I went over to one of the large mounting stands they have constructed and worked on parking Diggy in various spots and positions. He did really well with all of that. I thought about saddling up and riding in the little arena, but wanted to get home to watch the Super Bowl so scratched that idea. Going to hopefully do a couple little rides at home this week and (if the weather cooperates), we have plans for another ride with Beth on Friday.
** Oh! I had a dentist appt this afternoon and have a tooth update! I'm going to be losing the canine on the bottom right for sure, that root is broke all the way across, no saving it. All the other teeth looked really good and my roots on my incisors were much longer with the closer more detailed x-rays than they looked in the panoramic, and all of them look very healthy for now. They ground down a little of the composite material on the front of my bottom teeth so I can now close my jaw! Yay! I also discovered last week that I can chew regular food, as long as I cut it up really small first (no biting), so I'm off my smoosh food diet. Double-Yay! **
Friday, January 30, 2009
Stupid Owner, Bad Diego
First of all, I'm okay. Diego's training has been on hold for a couple weeks now due to the following incident that occurred on Friday 1/16:
Took Diego for a hand walk today and he was feeling really frisky and glad to be out. We came to this long dirt road with really nice footing and I lunged him around me a few times in a circle to try to get his attention back. He was feeling really fresh and had only ever been here twice before, so was kind of bouncing around. I left him on a pretty long lead rope and took off running with him (on foot). He got a bit a head of me, then spooked at the neighbor's dogs when they came running up to the fence and scooted forward more. I was just trying to pull him down when he cut over directly in front of me, ducked his head, and I thought "I'm going to get kicked" and POW! right to the face/chin. Very poor horse handling on my part, and it got me.
Took Diego for a hand walk today and he was feeling really frisky and glad to be out. We came to this long dirt road with really nice footing and I lunged him around me a few times in a circle to try to get his attention back. He was feeling really fresh and had only ever been here twice before, so was kind of bouncing around. I left him on a pretty long lead rope and took off running with him (on foot). He got a bit a head of me, then spooked at the neighbor's dogs when they came running up to the fence and scooted forward more. I was just trying to pull him down when he cut over directly in front of me, ducked his head, and I thought "I'm going to get kicked" and POW! right to the face/chin. Very poor horse handling on my part, and it got me.
=(
I didn't pass out or fall down, but face was bleeding profusely. I started walking toward the nearest house, where I could see they had a back gate. Their fence was wrought iron, so you could see to the house really easily. The neighbor lady came out, she had seen Diego go running by (I dropped his lead). She asked if I was okay and I told her "No, I need you to call my husband." Poor lady was pretty flustered, I was more calm than she was. We couldn't reach AJ by phone, he was working in the garage that afternoon and didn't have his cell with him (we've decided to put a phone in the garage, there is already a jack). I could feel that my teeth were all jacked up and NOT where they should be, plus I was still bleeding pretty good.
I didn't pass out or fall down, but face was bleeding profusely. I started walking toward the nearest house, where I could see they had a back gate. Their fence was wrought iron, so you could see to the house really easily. The neighbor lady came out, she had seen Diego go running by (I dropped his lead). She asked if I was okay and I told her "No, I need you to call my husband." Poor lady was pretty flustered, I was more calm than she was. We couldn't reach AJ by phone, he was working in the garage that afternoon and didn't have his cell with him (we've decided to put a phone in the garage, there is already a jack). I could feel that my teeth were all jacked up and NOT where they should be, plus I was still bleeding pretty good.
Diego had initially ran off down the road, but then came back and stood outside the lady's fence while I was sitting in her back yard (I didn't want to bleed all over her nice house). Once she convinced me to come inside, Diego looked kind of lost for a moment and then started heading for home. I was worried because I had crossed a street that has a pretty small buy steady flow of traffic. Didn't want him getting hit by a car... Thankfully there is a big church on the same side of the street we were already on, and they have a big lawn. So Diggy got sidetracked and started to graze. Someone caught Diego and tied him to a tree. She didn't really know about horses, she had him double-knotted to the very base of the tree, but at least he wasn't going to get hit by a car.
The nice neighbor lady drove me home. We stopped where Diggy was real quick and I asked the other lady if she could just move the rope up a bit higher so he wouldn't step over it. AJ was coming out of the garage right as I was walking up to the house, bloody towel wrapped around my face. I asked him to please go get Diego (He later gave me a hard time for telling him to go get the HORSE and not to do anything for ME). I called my dentist at him home and he met us at his office (close by our house). I was in his chair within 30 minutes of getting kicked.
I spent 2 hours with AJ as the dental assistant getting my teeth straightened out and putting more or less "tooth bondo" on them to hold them in place for now. My dentist put in a few temporary stitches to stop the bleeding enough so he could somewhat work on my mouth. Having an advanced digital office was a problem, since he didn't have access to his xray or my electronic files, but my hard-copy file had a picture of my teeth and they put that on my chest and more or less "matched things back to where they were." Thankfully I was numb for all of this (I went numb when kicked and then had the shots by the time the adrenaline was wearing off, so very little pain).
We went to the ER where I got 5 stitches on my outer chin and I think 6 or 7 in my inner lip, I'm split from canine to canine on the bottom lip. The cut on my chin goes all the way through the skin. My jaw's also fractured, but not broke all the way through and not displaced - so thankfully I'm not wired shut.
I'm alright though, thank GOD that I caught the hoof toward the end of the kick, not right in the power band. I won't know if my teeth are going to make it or not for several months (great). I'll also probably end up with a pretty nice scar on my chin. Lots of good drugs and soft foods for the immediate future....Ugh.
I'm alright though, thank GOD that I caught the hoof toward the end of the kick, not right in the power band. I won't know if my teeth are going to make it or not for several months (great). I'll also probably end up with a pretty nice scar on my chin. Lots of good drugs and soft foods for the immediate future....
Pic from the morning after.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!
Diego went for his first trail ride today and it was wonderful, fabulous, super awesome good! He's such a superstar!!! =) We went with friend Beth Kauffman and her horse Sutter, and just went on a nice long walking ride all over Beth's property in Washoe Valley (they have quite a bit!). He's not **that** super far along in his training (i.e. we've only trotted under saddle about 5 times in total), but I felt like my turning and brakes were in well enough working order to give it a go. He does have a very nice one-rein stop, and a good regular stop, so I felt that we should probably be okay as long as his brain was in good working order, which it was. At this point, I'm still riding 100% in my rope halter side-pull. He's only worn the snaffle bit twice in the corral at home, with no reins or pressure involved at all at this point.
Diego was very happy to sight-see along, he looked really relaxed and happy. He feels very solid, not wobbly or like he's still trying to balance. He's still getting the hang of "where should I put my feet" and would step on rocks and kind of shift his weight (leaving him barefoot will help with this) and he doesn't yet walk along as quickly under me as he does while not being ridden, but over all he's very solid feeling. We went through sagebrush, over rocks, and up and down a few small little ditch-type things. He was FABULOUS!
Only one little spook when two dogs ran up barking and hit their fence, he just scooted forward about three steps and then turned around to see what the heck it was. We sat for a moment and then rode off, Diego walked down about 50 feet and then wanted to turn around and go BACK to where the dogs were. I don't know why, but he was really intent on going back that way instead of forward toward the house/horse trailer (which he couldn't see) so that was the only little argument we had, that "No, you cannot go back toward the barking dogs." He's very much a sight-seer and was more likely to see something and then want to go over there to "check it out" than he was to see something and want to get away from it. A big plus.
He did NOT spook at the rabbits rushing out (although **I** did), the covey of quail that took off flying nearby, the black truck bed liner, the piece of shiny aluminum something, the tumbleweed that was so big it almost touched my stirrup that we had to walk right past, the teal truck bed, etc. etc. He didn't care at all when Beth and Sutter would get a ways ahead (she was super nice and would always stop and wait without my having to say anything), he just went along looking and checking stuff out. We did try to cross one loose soft ditch by their driveway rather than go down further and have to go across the culvert. Poor Diggy just couldn't quite figure it out - I don't know why that one was different than the others, perhaps because the footing was more soft and squishy, or perhaps because the fence was just on the other side? As we were on the blacktop road (not slippery thankfully), I didn't want to mess with him overly much and have an argument. Plus Beth said he looked like he might have been contemplating jumping across, not something we needed to be doing. =) Beth came back across and we went down and went over the culvert, which turned out to be a total non issue.
YAY!!! I have total perma-grin now and probably will all weekend. =))) He's really coming along great and I couldn't be happier with how he's been doing lately.
Diego was very happy to sight-see along, he looked really relaxed and happy. He feels very solid, not wobbly or like he's still trying to balance. He's still getting the hang of "where should I put my feet" and would step on rocks and kind of shift his weight (leaving him barefoot will help with this) and he doesn't yet walk along as quickly under me as he does while not being ridden, but over all he's very solid feeling. We went through sagebrush, over rocks, and up and down a few small little ditch-type things. He was FABULOUS!
Only one little spook when two dogs ran up barking and hit their fence, he just scooted forward about three steps and then turned around to see what the heck it was. We sat for a moment and then rode off, Diego walked down about 50 feet and then wanted to turn around and go BACK to where the dogs were. I don't know why, but he was really intent on going back that way instead of forward toward the house/horse trailer (which he couldn't see) so that was the only little argument we had, that "No, you cannot go back toward the barking dogs." He's very much a sight-seer and was more likely to see something and then want to go over there to "check it out" than he was to see something and want to get away from it. A big plus.
He did NOT spook at the rabbits rushing out (although **I** did), the covey of quail that took off flying nearby, the black truck bed liner, the piece of shiny aluminum something, the tumbleweed that was so big it almost touched my stirrup that we had to walk right past, the teal truck bed, etc. etc. He didn't care at all when Beth and Sutter would get a ways ahead (she was super nice and would always stop and wait without my having to say anything), he just went along looking and checking stuff out. We did try to cross one loose soft ditch by their driveway rather than go down further and have to go across the culvert. Poor Diggy just couldn't quite figure it out - I don't know why that one was different than the others, perhaps because the footing was more soft and squishy, or perhaps because the fence was just on the other side? As we were on the blacktop road (not slippery thankfully), I didn't want to mess with him overly much and have an argument. Plus Beth said he looked like he might have been contemplating jumping across, not something we needed to be doing. =) Beth came back across and we went down and went over the culvert, which turned out to be a total non issue.
YAY!!! I have total perma-grin now and probably will all weekend. =))) He's really coming along great and I couldn't be happier with how he's been doing lately.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Update 01/04/2009
Diggy had two big milestones this weekend, # 1 we rode with other horses in the arena. He did good, he would tend to stop if he wasn't quite sure, but I'll take a stop rather than just about any other option so I was proud and happy with how he did. We worked on passing and being passed, both with the other horse(s) either going the same or the opposite direction as us. Then, because he was being SUCH a good boy, we did milestone # 2 and TROTTED under saddle! I almost didn't because he was being good and I wanted to just end on a high note, but my friend's commented that with how relaxed he was, it was actually the perfect time. So I trotted him a couple of times in hand first, so he knew what we were going to ask for, then I got on and my friend Sarah led him off and asked him to trot. He took a couple little scooty steps and then settled right into a super nice, relaxed, **OMG HE'S SO SMOOTH** trot. I even posted a bit, which I had to make myself do as it was totally unnecessary. So then we unclipped the lead line and did it all by ourselves, both directions. He was just such a superstar, I was totally stoked!
Friends Sarah and Kelli were standing in the middle of the arena giving me tail updates (he's got it up, now it's relaxed, it's out, etc) which I found very humorous and a good gauge of how he was doing. He was so relaxed and smooth and perfect about the whole thing, I'm glad I let them talk me into it. =)
First little trail ride will be coming after I make plans with a steady-eddy horse buddy to supervise. =)
Friends Sarah and Kelli were standing in the middle of the arena giving me tail updates (he's got it up, now it's relaxed, it's out, etc) which I found very humorous and a good gauge of how he was doing. He was so relaxed and smooth and perfect about the whole thing, I'm glad I let them talk me into it. =)
First little trail ride will be coming after I make plans with a steady-eddy horse buddy to supervise. =)
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