Blog Your Ride
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@jcraig10 Sounds like a great show. Congratulations!0
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@jcraig10 that's great!
Had my first ride in aiken today. Just some w, t, c and a hack around the property. Felt amazing! 75 degrees and sunny
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That sounds amazing @crimsongrey ...my trainer is headed down there next week for about a month with her 3 y/o & a sale horse. Enjoy it!0
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Someone was a little full of himself today. No walk, no trot. Only cantering, galloping and general craziness. Fun times
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Tomorrow is another day! @crimsongrey
Had a lesson tonight...focused mostly on rider fitness. We did a lot of no stirrup work at the trot...figure 8s sitting, circles posting. Got my stirrups back for canter (smile) and worked on canter circles in 2 point. Only one more lesson before my trainer heads south! :-( I will still be able to ride while she is gone though, which is good!2 -
I got my country horse past the ducks in the pond last night. We walked by the ducks, they moved into the water. By the time we got down to the palm tree on the trail the ducks started to fly over the fence. She spooked. I got her back under control and walked by the remaining ducks again and again. Then, because walking past scary ducks wasn't enough, I took her further down the trail than we have been before. I was walking her past the bridge that goes over the culvert. The running water had her shaking. I stopped and gave her a bite of grass, walked back the way we came and repeated 3 more times. When she was finally settled and following me quietly, I took her back to the part of the trail she is familiar with and got on. Rode the lap around the pond twice and went home.
Slowly getting my country horse used to life in the city. She's a great mare with a good head on her shoulders. She calms down quickly to new surroundings. I haven't taken her to a horse show or anything yet. I hope to be able to take her to the main arena eventually.
I decided that I am not rushing this though. I know I have limits and my mare has limits. At home we are both fine under saddle. Eventually we will get to enjoy the trails together. I am not letting my fears stop me, they just slow me down.
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@luckypony71 YAY!!! showing great tenacity! way to stick to it and give her the time to do it properly...... 2
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I love rides that, on the surface, seem uneventful but the fact they ARE uneventful is worthy of celebration. My semi-retired Paint gelding, Primer, has reduced vision in one eye. Before he was gifted to me nearly 4 years ago, he was removed from the lesson program because he had started spooking with very little provocation. Spooks were bad enough to throw the kids riding him. Bad enough to throw me, too. After spooking, he usually bolted and became hard to catch, high as a kite.
Yesterday, out for a hack just the two of us, he spooked at a loud noise. He bolted half a step then came right back to me with a quiet whoa. We stood for a moment then went on with our hack on the buckle. Trust and patience.4 -
I'd count that as a victory ride. He's trusting you.1
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@Here4Cookies What an amazing step! Makes it all worth while....1
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@luckypony71 great way to chip away at a bigger goal, taking it a little bit further every day.
@Here4Cookies yes, the uneventful rides are always amazing and you realize just how far you both have come as a team.
I have had the great fortune of riding with Buck Brannaman and Clinton Anderson along with other great horse people and I have accomplished so much trust and respect using the Natural Horsemanship training. All my show horses trail ride and people are so amazed they are so versatile. I have been all over the country trail riding my show horses.2 -
@tmcoyle I'm a dressage rider and my barn is mostly other dressage riders and hunters. I'm amazed at how most of them refuse to ride outside the arena. A lot of the DRs refuse to ride in the outdoor arena, preferring the indoor even in summer. My trainer (an eventer and jumper by training) purchased a middle level dressage horse for her own recreational use. He has been ridden outside so infrequently, he is actually insecure in his footfalls in even mildly uneven terrain. I don't understand keeping the horses limited to controlled environments.
Has anyone else had a chance to ride recently? We've had some strange weather....0 -
Had a great jump school today! My horse and I are finally starting to click It was our first course work in a couple of months. We worked on keeping a consistent pace to the jumps and on the backside. So much fun! 4
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Òh, and we don't have any fenced arenas...it's all open fields and trails. I used to do h/j's and was scared to leave the ring. Now I can't wait to be in the open!1
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@crimsongrey That sounds like a blast! Glad you are enjoying your time down south.
@tmcoyle I've seen that too. I feel like riding outside the arena is vital for a horses mental health just like turnout time.1 -
Hi everyone! I've been lurking for a bit but do have a ride to brag on. I was in a lesson Friday on a big beast (percheron cross, love him) and had a great time getting him to jump and turn 90 degrees to the next jump. This was huge for me, as my last fall--including bruised tailbone--was not being able to make the turn on a much smaller and handier horse. Plus, at the end of the lesson we all swapped horses, and I got the hot horse giving her rider trouble. Happily I got him to settle down and pop over the cavaletti jumps with no problem!
I'm still new to the jumping world, so this really boosted my confidence. I will also post my lease horse in the intro thread--he's a doll.5 -
@hoyalawya2003 Bout time you showed your pretty little face in here So glad to hear your doing well and had a great lesson last week! 0
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I've always been nervous to go out of the ring. The trainer I am with now has really helped me out with that. We have walk on access to thousands of acres of private land with 80 miles of trails. We will go out trail riding, do trot sets, hill work...its great for my confidence.
Had my last lesson last night before my trainer heads south. I rode the pony and worked on some trot poles and then some small gymnastic work. It was fun. Hoping to get out this weekend with a friend from the barn and do some trail riding...its about a 20 minute hack over to an all weather ring so we might go there as well. 1 -
I need to remember not everyone learned to ride the way I did: bareback on a nasty (really very patient!) Shetland pony on my Grandma's farm, dodging the cattle. I don't think I rode in anything smaller than a 5 acre pasture until I was a teenager. I find riding in a crowded arena to nerve wracking. 1
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@Here4Cookies haha yes I find warm up rings terrifying! Especially when jumping is involved...free for all at some shows!2
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Living in the City we are limited on our trails. Some barns have to trailer into the park. I am lucky that it is right at my gate. I wish I could of grown up riding on a farm. A friend of mine was telling me that when they were little they learned how to stay on the hard way, if they got bucked off the pony it was a long walk home.
@hoyalawya2003 Sounds like you had a great lesson. Good job!
I managed to get some time in with Breezy yesterday. Went a whole week without horsey time! She was very distracted.
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@jcraig10 you should see some of the warmup rings here in the winter..... classes of 100 horses, and trainers that think their pony riders (children typically) should warm up when the class before ends even if they are 85-99 in
I had a lesson last night and it ended awesome! I have an oxer issue, my last trainer instilled the doubt a long time ago, by always dropping the back rail or crossing it over..... well last night the line was vertical oxer 5 strides.... oh and a water tray under the oxer! we started with a vertical vertical and it was fine. Then it was built up to a square oxer not very big maybe 2'9 well by stride 3 I gave up..... kinda like taking my foot off the gas driving up a hill and my horse needs the support for his own confidence. I progressed from stopping at stride 4, to chipping in and doing 6 to getting mad enough that i did it perfectly at the end! I need to work on getting back into the saddle for support (not driving) and not in a half seat.
I have my first indoor show coming up in 3 weeks where my trainer is wanting me to move up..... Entries are due Feb 7... we will see if I stay in my comfort zone or move it!4 -
@showjumper Sounds like you made great progress in that one lesson! Great work.0
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@jcraig10 Thanks I just have to put on my brave face and get it done, which is easier said then done.... if I show any doubt or reservation my guy isn't quite brave enough yet to bail me out.
My trainer is leaving in the morning for Thermal so I will be with the International Rider for the next two weeks....... then 1 maybe 2 lesson when he gets back before we leave for the first weekend.0 -
Such a fun ride today! Trot and canter sets followed by a few jumps in the jump field. Great rhythm and so rideable 1
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Had a fun hack out today with a couple of barn friends. The farm has walk on access to tons of trails so we went out and did a nice 1.5 hr loop. I don't get to go out on the trails a ton so I'm not very confident out there but the pony is a rockstar and we did have one nice long canter spot which was fun.
It's so nice to get out of the ring, as we've been talking about here the past couple of days. There's really just nothing like it.2 -
Last night was my second ride in over a month on the 7yo OTTB. He stabbed himself in the shoulder just before Christmas. Between that, bad weather, and holidays I hadn't ridden him since. Until Sunday. I lunged him three days last week to get his mind back to work mode but I was still expecting a lot of 'oh hell no get off my back' from him. Only one time, after a walk break, did he suck back and say NO but I said YES and he said oh okay if you insist. Yesterday, not even that much resistance. I think he might actually be growing up. 1
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Had a good lesson yesterday... I have an age old issue with oxers.... this is the first time around the "course" hence the hesitation to the red one (it was 1.0m and looked like 1.50) but had to pay for the goose with a circle to get the lead but went down the second line well.... huge confidence building ride yesterday! Pretty proud of myself!
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Ugh trying to attach the video.... ok so had to go to alternative measures here are the pics of the fences ... I was sitting on the horse when I took them... ha they look mini!..... we did stick them after and the red was 1.0m and the green was 0.90m
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