Saturday I went to the barn for a ride with Gay and Cathi. We decided to venture out into the fields around the barn in spite of the snow cover, so it marked my first horseback adventure through the fluffy white stuff. And, I am happy to report, it wasn’t much of an adventure. Steen… Read more »
trail-ride
Catching Up
I’ve fallen a bit behind on the horse blogging lately. I started with my trip home for Thanksgiving. Although I did go on one nice long solo ride on my sister’s horse, Jak, it was a largely horse-free week. We returned to Iowa and I was quite Steen-sick. We went to the barn the day… Read more »
Starting Them Young
Today Steen and I had a glorious ride that involved no spooks, and a sustained, balanced, steady and not at all crazy lope out on the trails! Then we came home and I untacked just in time to receive some very special visitors. My friend, Adele, and her son Ben came out to meet Steen.… Read more »
Aid and A Bit
Brian went out last week for a solo ride on Cal, and things didn’t go so well for the two of them. Although she is trained Western Pleasure, Cal’s neck-reining sort of comes and goes as far as effectiveness is concerned, and Brian encountered increasingly frequent moments when she took his directional guidance with a… Read more »
Oh, Deer
On Friday, Steen and I hit the trails again, and things didn’t go so well. We started out with a mistake on my part. I assumed he’d be ok walking past a car he spooked at a few days ago. But he wasn’t. Within two minutes of the start of the ride, he’d treated me… Read more »
Three Times is a Habit
When I was a kid and had my first horse (and didn’t know what I was doing) I had a neighbor who would sometimes give me pointers. A few of her remarks really stuck with me – trite as they were. One of her favorites was”familiar breeds content,” and I have definitely found that one… Read more »
Out and About
Today Steen and I managed a milestone of sorts. We did the same ride as we did yesterday, but we did it alone. It is 2.5 miles of looping around and between various agricultural fields. It took us exactly 45 minutes. We had one tremendous spook and two small ones (the first two before we… Read more »
Hard to Beat
Today Brian and I returned to the barn. With weather this beautiful, we just couldn’t help ourselves. We pulled our horses out of the pasture, tacked up and headed out. Both Steen and Cal were calm from the start, and we proceeded down to the bottom of the strip. We turned around and started heading… Read more »
A Ride
On Saturday night Brian and I were sitting in the study, and my phone, next to me on the desk, buzzed and beeped, informing me I’d gotten a text message. Brian and I have been a little out of the loop for the last week or so, having contracted a flu and been laid low.… Read more »
Solo Outing Number One
Today Steen and I had our first solitary adventure into the (sort of) unknown. Granted, we only walked up and down the trail the group ride took a few weeks ago, but we went far enough away from the barn not to be able to see it, any of the horses, or any of the… Read more »