Like most horses, all of our guys were born in the late spring/early summer. Bear’s birthday is the earliest, and today he turned 18. He does pretty darn well for his age. Other than being slightly more prone to getting stiff and sore than our other two, he really doesn’t seem like he’s in his… Read more »
short serpentine
Out in the Sun
Today was sunny and in the 50s! We seized the opportunity to ride outside. It was great to be back on the strip. I rode Steen, and he was full of energy from the start. For the most part, he wasn’t misbehaving, but it was one of those days I could have pointed him at… 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 »
A Hackamore Horse?
We’ve had Martin Black’s “The Hackamore” DVD sitting around for weeks, but fresh on the heels of the Buck clinic, we felt we had enough new ideas about riding in the snaffle to keep us busy for a while. I feel like when I have these intense periods of learning, I need some time to… Read more »
Reset
It was with some relief I haltered Steen today and tacked him up. It’s going to be an interesting challenge for me these next few months. Steen seems to be hitting some kind of stride lately. Every ride I think things are fantastic, and then the next ride they are better. It’s a hard act… Read more »
Haunch Magic
I’ve decided there are three things I need to refine with Steen before we go back into the hackamore. These are: short-serpentines whirly-gigs lope transitions We’ve got a really good handle on the first two. In fact today we were pretty much nailing those every time I asked. So we spent a lot of the… Read more »
Subtle Makes Supple
One of the reasons we got a third horse was to help us break out of the mental ruts its so easy to fall into when riding the same horse all the time. And I have to say, it’s working like a charm. After my ride on Laredo on Monday, I approached my next ride… Read more »
Dun Rusty
Today we decided it was high time to get back on Laredo. Sure, we still have some ear stuff to work through, but our few intense sessions had a big impact. Lately it almost seems like his reaction to stuff around his head is more of a habit than a real issue. He “forgets” to… Read more »
Just Like Old Times
Today Brian and I were both still pretty worn out, so we decided to do something we hadn’t done in a while: leave Laredo in the pasture and just ride like we used to before the baby came. Of course we gave him his hoof supplement when we went out to catch the other horses.… Read more »
Musical Horses
Since getting Laredo, our conversations on the way to the barn have become quite a bit more complicated. Today we had ample time to do all sorts of things. Both Brian and I wanted to ride our individual horses and also work with Laredo, so we formulated a plan that involved catching all three guys… Read more »