I took Buddy out again last night on the loop by Alamoosook Lodge. He went right to the water at the landing and I didn’t have to get down this time for him to step in and take a sip!! Yes! Progress!! He was kind of tender footed on the fire road which has me a little concerned….but that’s another story. When we got to the trail that cuts from the fire road across he wanted to trot. Once we got thru a bumpy part of the trail I asked him for a lope – and lope we did! The trail is a nice stretch of flat 4-wheeler trail, nice soft ground but not sink-y soft. It was a blast!! When we came out the other side, we trotted up the dirt road until we got back to the tar. He is really getting his balance at the trot and feels great at the lope but is still unbalanced. We’ll get there, I have no doubt about that!
Today I went out and hopped on Zandy – she seems to be a little “snorty” at first until she has a few minutes to settle into work. It took me a few minutes to get her down the driveway, just like the other night – she was snorty about the painted “STOP” lines on the driveway. The kids are home today so I couldn’t go very far, but Buddy and Rowdy were turned out in my riding pen so we just went up the road to mom and dads – today was one of those times that I was glad my Dad won’t let me fence in his yard! When we were about 20 feet from the driveway, a car came flying down the hill – they moved over but didn’t slow down. I was a little nervous considering what happened with Buddy and the truck last night (I’ll get to that in a second blog as soon as it’s finished) but Zandy stood nice and quiet while the car passed.
We started out just walking some circles on the lawn and once she got her snorts out about all the rocks, truck cap, stack of wood, old metal barrel etc we started trotting figure 8’s and LOTS of neck reining. I have to admit that as much as I LOVE Buddy, it’s nice to get on a horse that I can ride with just one hand and relax. I can relax on Buddy to a point, but not like on a been there done that horse. I had asked Zandy to lope in the big pasture the other night but couldn’t get it and just wasn’t comfortable pushing her. Today though, I asked for a lope and got the nicest lope I’ve ridden in a while!! To be sure it wasn’t just a fluke – I trotted a big circle and asked again – same thing this big ground covering but lovely lope! The more she worked, the better she got.
I rode for about a half hour – it was pretty warm, more the humidity really and both Zan and I were pretty sweaty. We took a lovely stroll up around dads garden and up into the woods – but the deer flies were our in droves so we turned and headed back towards home. Interestingly, the boat that’s along the path and the pile of tires never bothered her – EVERY other horse has had issues with that one section. We came out of the trail and she was pretty upset about the swarm of deer flies all over her face/ears. I finally convinced her to stop and let me get them off and we had a nice, flat footed calm walk home.
Just as I was getting down, Kenneth came out and asked if he could sit on Zandy. I said SURE! and tossed him up there! At first he didn’t want to hold the reins but I showed him how to hold them and steer her and then I just stepped back. You could see an INSTANT change in Zandy’s demeanor. Not that she was worked up with me but the minute Ken was in that saddle, she changed. Instead of walking out like she does with me she took teeny tiny steps. She stopped once and all Ken had to do was click to her and bumped a little with his foot and she started off again. I have no doubt that she would be great for us to have for the kids.
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