It's been a great couple of weeks of riding. I've been out most every day rotating between three horses - Dusty, Jessie, and Scratch. It's a great experience to ride three different horses. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses.
Jessie is solid on the trail. Nothing bothers her, except she wants to dance with the horse that brought her. If she goes out alone, she is fine. If she goes out with another horse and that horse leaves her, she has a bit of a problem. She is a bit headstrong and likes to go where she wants and doesn't necessarily follow my instructions. That's given us some things to work on while on the trail.
As far as her injury, I could not be more happy with her performance. We rode Friday in the mountains - up and down hills - for nearly two hours and the next day she was fine. The decision to take her to Equine Spa for treadmill conditioning so far has paid off.
Dusty wants to find the easy way out of everything. He'll go, sometimes you've got to convince him, but he'll go. If there is something he COULD be afraid of, he'll take that opportunity. He doesn't make a big deal about it, but he does "worry" very well.
Scratch is Scratch. He goes almost everywhere now. That's great. There was a time he wouldn't. He's a great mountain horse. He has a low gear that will power up and down any hillside I've encountered. I can swing a rope off of him at a lope. He's comfortable enough that I can build the loop while roping.
Friday we went to the ranch and I rode Jessie in one direction and back for an hour forty-five. Then, took a break and rode Scratch for over two hours in the other direction. By the time Saturday rolled around I was quite sore, but took Jessie out for a follow-up ride. She did great.
The point of all this is to fine tune my training techniques. I want the horses to all be strong. If I can pass along Jessie's courage to Scratch or Scratch's willingness to move to Dusty, that would be awesome. I am hopeful that by riding them all consistently I'll reach that goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment