I’ve been riding consistently for over 20 years now, and while I do have quite a few experiences under my belt, the thing I love about working with horses is how the learning never stops. You never know when you’re going to have a new “first.” For instance, today I rode in spurs for the… Read more »
lope
Zoom
We probably could have ridden outside today as it was warmish and dry, but I was pretty tired and I also felt like another ride indoors on Laredo would be a good to build on the things we worked on last time. We started with a difficult bridling. There was some dried dirt and ickiness… Read more »
Things to Remember
We rode in the indoor arena again today. Steen wasn’t quite as energetic as he was last ride, and he was thinking a little more than I would have liked about going to the middle of the arena and standing still. This is habit that surfaces now when we ride indoors. Basically what it amounts… Read more »
Back Indoors
After a long couple weeks of traveling, we felt like lounging in our own house a little bit. So it was a few days before we got out to the barn to see the guys. I definitely missed them, but it was also nice to know they were getting some good time off. Bear was… Read more »
Back on the Kid
We’re definitely having a somewhat lackadaisical start the year in terms of riding. But the weather is never great in January, so we tend to figure we’ll get out there when we get out there and not worry too much about how often it is. Today it was time to get Laredo going again. Ever since he… Read more »
Home to Winter
After our weeks in sunny Arizona, getting back to Iowa (where there is snow on the ground and temps have been in the teens) has been a bit of an… adjustment. Between the backlog of work-related tasks and some work we’re having done on the house, we had an unusually busy week and didn’t manage… Read more »
Easing out of 2012
It’s time for the obligatory end-of-the-year retrospective post (in which I will reflect on the year in general and provide copious numbers of back-links to previous posts). I’m less than an hour away from hitting my “time in the saddle” goal for 2012, and we still have two weeks of the year left. I think… Read more »
Back to Normal
Yesterday was Brian’s birthday. We both took the day off work and made time for a nice long barn trip in the afternoon. I was pleased to find Steen didn’t run to me the moment I appeared at the barn. While I do like that our horses come to us, with Steen you can gauge… Read more »
Young Visitors
A few years ago Robin had our friend Adele out to the barn with her young son, Ben. They had a great time meeting Steen. Now Adele has another son, Noah, and is pregnant with a third. In that time we have gotten two more horses, so they were excited to come out and see… Read more »
Return of the Double Ride Day
Today I got to use my new mecate. And I have to say, it looks pretty darn good on Laredo. It felt good too. The mane hair just has so much more life than the nylon I’ve been using on my snaffle. I particularly noticed it during groundwork. There was a lot more energy to… Read more »