Finally, Some Pony Time!

Finally. A busy weekend of riding! First, a trail ride on Saturday. I rode one of the new horses at the ranch, Jess. He is a Quarter Horse gelding. It was the first time he's been on the trail since he moved to the ranch a few months ago. In fact, it was the first day he'd been ridden since he got here! One of the wranglers rode him in the arena a bit beforehand and he didn't do anything too wild......so I Cowgirl-ed Up and took him out on a 20 horse ride! Other than tail-gaiting the mare ahead of him a bit, he actually was very good. It was a sunny yet crisp windy day (don't we love how horses can get on days like that?) but he didn't spook at nary a thing! This horse came from a trustworthy source and has been used for a trail horse and lessons with kids so we figured he was a good boy and he proved himself worthy.

Sunday- trail ride number two. We had 11 riders and this time I took My Boy. We played caboose and he too was a tail-gaiter. He got a few threatening tail swishes from Miss Daisy in front of him.  When we got back to the arena we let the riders do a trot and then try a lope down the arena rail.  I got to demonstrate how to do this on My Boy. We hadn't loped yet this season and he embarrassed me by being a bit of a stinker, shaking his head and bouncing a bit. It was not a pretty lope down the rail (which he is very capable of doing.) I didn't get a chance to work on it again since we were helping other riders. So I put him in a ranch corral for the night so that I could get him out to the arena after work on Monday.

Monday was sunny and warm again. I saddled My Boy up and longed him out, watching him under saddle at the lope. He moved nicely on the longe line, other than his head shake (seems to come on every spring now, due to photo sensitivity or perhaps allergies?) He looked fine, so I got up and we walked around a bit then went right into the lope.

We turned the ranch horses out for some green grass tonight. Mary looks like she might have a foal this year, but she just wintered well!

We worked both directions and he did well, not much silliness and I got him loping rather slowly on a loose rein. I worked on relaxing, sitting down in the saddle, and breathing. Our arena is huge and so I just used one end. I felt he turned sharply and leaned when going around corners but we'll work on this. I was just happy to have a good ride. I really worked hard at loping him comfortably last summer and I wanted to be sure we were off on the right foot this year!!

I had a fabulous weekend, I think spring is really here to stay! I am excited to have spent three days in a row in the saddle.

Darn jobs, they just get in the way of our pony time, don't they?

Ranch Girl