Sunday, March 11, 2012

Trail horse?

Perhaps Rain is trying to tell me that she's not meant to be a jumper (though when she chooses to do it, she's quite good at it..). This morning I had one of my students ride her and she wanted nothing to do with jumping or going over poles at ALL. She's suddenly decided she's not a fan of jumping and is scared of the poles. She was in a slamming on the brakes or deer jumping over the x-rails mood. Not good. . A friend of mine put on a trail course practice day, after the way this morning went, I really wasn't sure how the afternoon would go. Would Rain be really spooky or good? Now I've never been much of a "trail" class fan but I had an absolute blast this afternoon. I've never had a horse I could do it with though, so that sure makes a difference. . They had all kinds of stuff set up to play around with. A kiddie pool with a rope tied to it that you could dally around your saddle horn and drag with your horse. Balloons, a hula/grass skirt and a flag to carry. A teeter-totter bridge that would tip as you walked across it. A "pool noodle" wall to walk through, tarps to walk over, poles to back through, a giant blow up Santa and all kinds of other stuff. The really fun part was an elevated bridge that had several steps to walk up & down. . I was SO impressed with this little horse this afternoon. Absolutely nothing phased her (ok ok, the colored poles & tiny x-rail was still "scary" for some reason...) and she took it all in stride and did everything the first time I asked. There was a lot of people commenting that they'd been working at some of the obstacles ALL day and we waltzed in there and seemed to be able to do everything. Pretty good for a green horse! My friend said she thinks my horse is trying to tell me she doesn't want to be a jumper... Maybe she's right?? . Here's a photo of us on top of the bridge. (I think I was more nervous than she was that she'd fall off! lol)

3 comments:

  1. I've given up trying to buy young horses for a particular purpose...in the end, they tell ME what they want to specialize in and I just end up adapting to them rather than pursuing what I'm interested in.

    But it seems you might be in danger of collecting too many equines, plus the sidesaddles to with them! I suppose we should get started on that western sidesaddle apron for you ;).

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  2. hi michelle
    dont surpose you could teach a guy from england to ride western style.

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  3. Yes Robin, I think they sometimes do decide what they want to do. Though I really really hope she'll be a nice little hunter one day!

    Sorry, I don't teach western riding.

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