We’ve had some weather moving through Iowa, so things have been wet and we’ve been confined to riding indoors. On Friday we found the guys out in the summer pasture, happily grazing on 13 acres of new grass. The herd has seen a lot of turnover this winter, so half of its members had never been out… Read more »
lope
Another Day in the Hackamore
I rode in the hackamore again. I wasn’t planning on it. I thought for sure we would ride in the snaffle again and that Robin would be using the hackamore. She has talked about getting back to it a little more regularly. But she also got some new boots for Steen, and she wanted to… Read more »
Good Booties
I had two things on my mind as I started my ride today. One, I wanted to lope enough to see how Steen’s new booties affect his ability to relax at that gait. Two, I wanted to keep my booty in the saddle — no bouncing at the lope. Not even a little. I’ve been… Read more »
The Horse I Have Today
It is easy to go into a ride with expectations. On the way out to the barn Brian and I were talking about some of the ideas he’s reviewing while rereading True Horsemanship Through Feel by Bill Dorrance. He mentioned how Bill likes to talk about making things into games by setting up little challenges, like can… Read more »
Motoring at the Walk
Today we went out for a fairly long (for us) trail ride. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We received a little cold rain yesterday, and that helped green things up some. But today was in the low 60s with a bright, blue sky. As soon as I hopped on Bear I knew he was… Read more »
Strange Sunday
On Sunday the horses got their feet trimmed, which was good because Steen has a bit of a tendency to over-reach and kick himself on the inside of his right front foot when his feet get a bit long. He does this mostly at the lope, but we’ve been working on the lope a lot… Read more »
Riding Well Always Matters
On Sunday the guys got their feet trimmed, and then we took them out for an easy ride in the fields. Lately we’ve been doing some longer trail rides on Sundays, but for some reason neither Robin nor I felt like going out and about, so we stayed closer to home. It was a fun,… Read more »
Thinking in Circles
After our excellent ride in the indoor arena, today we had another beautiful day that just begged us to head out and about. We decided to start with some work on the strip and then do some meandering over on the second strip and the three hills. Somehow yesterday Brian and I started discussing circles,… Read more »
Indoor Hackamore Ride
We had a storm last night, so things were mushy out a the barn. We decided to ride indoors today. I’ve been meaning to use my hackamore again, and thought the quieter indoor space would be a good opportunity to do that. Steen always seems a tad confused when I put it on him (once… Read more »
A Quiet Indoor Ride
Last night I was reading through a little bit of Cow-Horse Confidence by Martin Black. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I might have found just what I needed to read. I ended up reading a section on balancing with the horse, and of course in that section Black was constantly talking about… Read more »