After Brian’s great ride on Laredo on Tuesday, I was keen to try him out Thursday. Unfortunately, I had an irritating work week, and while I wasn’t aware of being tired or short-tempered when we left for the barn, I was probably both of those things. Then there were a few things that did nothing to help… Read more »
strip
Back and Forth
It was a somewhat disappointing ride for all of us. Robin and Laredo had their own issues, and Bear and I were contending with what appeared to be his sore back and distraction as well as my general tiredness. I’m pretty sure any distraction he was experiencing came from me, though I’m sure a sore… Read more »
Best Yet
By far. Laredo was wonderful today. He walked right up to me in the pasture, and things just got better from there. Working around his head with the flymask and headstall, grooming, and leading were all really great. I suppose the only not so great moments occured with groundwork. We are improving a lot with… 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 »
Some Good Hours
Saturday we got invited on a little trail-riding expedition. We headed out in the morning. It was a group of six horses and riders: 3 paints, 3 quarter-horses. Which is actually kind of funny because the breed selection of at our barn is fairly diverse. Unrepresented breeds include Arab, American Showhorse, Saddlebred, Warmblood, Applaoosa, Thoroughbred… Read more »
Double Double
Today Robin and I both rode two horses. We got to the barn even earlier than yesterday, and we decided to each start with the horse least familiar to us. So Robin rode Laredo, and I rode Steen. I spent the ride thinking about Robin’s last blog post, so I was trying my best to… Read more »
Group Riding
Friday evening we received an email that there would be a morning ride at the barn. We planned on riding in the morning anyways, so we figured we would tag along. We arrive before most of the others, so we just did our normal thing and headed out to the strip to warm up. Bear… Read more »
The Rewards of Going Second
Robin was the first of us to ride Laredo. I certainly don’t mind such things, as she has much more experience with all this stuff than I do and is probably more prepared to handle less-than-ideal situations than I am. But yesterday I realized there were other benefits as well. It has been more than… 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 »
Out of Shape Already?
I guess it has been a light month of riding. With a visitor, a vacation, a new horse, and a 60th birthday party, Bear ended up getting quite a few days off. That, coupled with thick, lush grass, meant Bear added quite a few pounds of fat and lost more than a few pounds of… Read more »