The weather has been beautiful and this is making it so much more possible to have some truly enjoyable rides. Today we rode in the second pasture and my goal was the same as last time – to work Steen through all three gaits, giving him a chance to really settle at each. Steen started… Read more »
lope
A Bit About Bits
Although Steen’s behavior has been excellent lately, I’ve been feeling for some time that his bit doesn’t fit him quite as well as I would like. He doesn’t fight it, or toss his head, or refuse to take it or anything major like that, but it does shift around in his mouth more than I’d… Read more »
Two Good Horses
Yesterday I made the comment that Brian and I never seem to both have good horses on the same day. Today our fellas proved me wrong. Of course, Brian went out with a plan, prepared to be firm with Bear and with a simple strategy to work on during the ride. After Bear’s mini-buck last… Read more »
Playing Catch-Up
I’ve fallen rather behind on my blogging. I don’t even have a good excuse. Steen’s actually been extremely well-behaved lately, and I guess that makes my rides a bit less bloggable. 🙂 But, to sum up: 8/6: We rode in the tree pasture again for the shade. Steen was great. We played follow-the-leader, changing positions… Read more »
Three Bay Geldings
This morning our friend Gay was out tacking up Doc at the same time we were getting our boys ready. It was already hot and extremely humid, so Brian and I had decided to ride in the stall horse pasture with all the big shade-creating trees. We invited Gay to ride with us. We led our three… Read more »
Loping on a Loose Rein
We’ve had heat, but today Brian and I managed to get up and to the barn early enough to have a nice ride. Steen was an absolute model citizen all day. I don’t know if he was just happy to see me after a few days off or what, but he was a total doll.… Read more »
Stormy Ride
Brian and I have a real knack for utterly miscalculating the weather on the weekends and heading to the barn at precisely the wrong time. Today was no exception. We found ourselves with two mostly tacked up horses and a storm that rolled in and started dumping rain. We went inside and dawdled, hoping it… Read more »
A Few Good Rides
It’s been hot, but my sister has been visiting and that has provided extra motivation to get out to the barn even on days I would not normally go. She arrived on Saturday, and we headed out in the afternoon. She rode both horses and they both gave her a bit of a hard time… Read more »
Best Ever?
It is possible that today I had the best ride on Steen I’ve ever had. I took my own ThinLine pad to the barn today. It’s a western cut instead of english, so it fit a bit better with my tack from the start. We tacked up and I led Steen to the strip, where… Read more »
A Step in the Right Direction
We got to the barn early again today, and although it didn’t cool off much in the night and it was pretty humid, there was a nice breeze that kept things from feeling too bad. I did some groundwork with Steen before mounting. I’ve been starting to teach him to side-pass from the ground, and… Read more »