Hey you! Come here! Give me an carrot!Darling took the reins the other day. I was getting ready to saddle Jet up and Darling wanted to climb on. A mother hesitates a bit when their not so experienced child wants to climb onto a not so experienced horse, especially one that's 16 hands off the ground. But Jet, well...she's never given any reason to doubt she'd do anything but walk willingly around. So I said yes, and Darling lit up the world with her Mary Tyler Moore smile as we walked around the pasture a few times.
Yesterday I saddled her up again. The weather, thankfully, has held and given us some dry afternoons. With Quiet Storm out in the pasture and Sunny in the paddock, I didn't really have anywhere to ride. What the heck, I thought, I may as well climb on out here in the driveway. No fences or round pen panels to keep her mind focused on the here and now. That can be dangerous with a young horse. But I climbed on anyway.
And she listened to me... She walked around the cars and circled the drive way, did turns to the left and right, both pivots and figure eights. When we were facing out towards the road her pace picked up and it felt like she was about to pick up the trot. My girl wanted to go! But I didn't let her. We turned back towards the barn. There was no doubt she felt good, there was a spring to her step thats not there when we're in the paddock. Once we were past the gate she again pricked up her ears picked up the pace; we were now facing the back of the property where she knew the trail heading to the pasture was.
Yup, this girl wants to hit the trails. I'm going to have to put some time in the saddle this winter so that we can start walking down to the tree farm trail.
Yesterday I saddled her up again. The weather, thankfully, has held and given us some dry afternoons. With Quiet Storm out in the pasture and Sunny in the paddock, I didn't really have anywhere to ride. What the heck, I thought, I may as well climb on out here in the driveway. No fences or round pen panels to keep her mind focused on the here and now. That can be dangerous with a young horse. But I climbed on anyway.
And she listened to me... She walked around the cars and circled the drive way, did turns to the left and right, both pivots and figure eights. When we were facing out towards the road her pace picked up and it felt like she was about to pick up the trot. My girl wanted to go! But I didn't let her. We turned back towards the barn. There was no doubt she felt good, there was a spring to her step thats not there when we're in the paddock. Once we were past the gate she again pricked up her ears picked up the pace; we were now facing the back of the property where she knew the trail heading to the pasture was.
Yup, this girl wants to hit the trails. I'm going to have to put some time in the saddle this winter so that we can start walking down to the tree farm trail.
3 comments:
Love that horse! Son of a gun, she's black!
Riding to the tree farm sure sounds great.
Cool, I'm glad she's so willing and ready to go.
I'm so happy that Jet is making such wonderful progress!
I know what you mean about your mustang "perking up" once they leave the arena/round pen. I rode my mustang only in the arena for a long, long time. When I finally left the safety of that space and ventured into the wild unknown it was like I was riding a whole new horse. He still listened to me, but his head was up and swinging around and his feet were MOVING.
He walks so fast out on the trails. It's like he just can't wait to see what is around the next bend and then the next bend and then over the hill! He knows he can't change gaits unless asked to do so, so he just puts as much speed as possible into that walk! We leave everyone we attempt to ride with in our trail dust.
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