We (well, just Jessie and I ) got in two rides this weekend. Let me go back a bit. On Thursday, we had some time for some groundwork. Practiced more of the backing in angles. Not sure why I can't get that one down a little better. She was trying and that was a good thing. We also did a few other exercises like out and back and changing eyes 3. She has those both down to my satisfaction.
Dusty has been off for two weeks now. I think he's had issues in two areas and while we were focused on the front, he strained something in his hind. He got the weekend off. Ranae got to ride Charlie, our neighbor Susan's horse.
Charlie was one of the first horses I worked the method with some 6-7 years ago. It was right after Ranae got Dusty and then hurt her back. I rode Dusty for three or four weeks to keep him in shape and shortly after that Susan banged up her knee and couldn't ride for 6 weeks or so. Charlie and I did a lot of groundwork, and even though I didn't own a horse, I had invested in a stick and string, halter, dvd, and cowboy hat.
Most of our workout sessions were early morning and sometimes we worked in the afternoon. Charlie helped me learn a lot. Because we hadn't ridden him in quite awhile, we started at the beginning with flexing and desensitizing. He picked most of it up quickly. We practiced one rein stops and, when we were certain he could do those, we headed out to our usual haunts.
We did some trotting and Charlie was kinda stuck in high gear. Ranae kept working with him and she did a great job of working on her horsemanship. We kept talking about how easy it is to get in a rut just riding one horse.
Sunday we went out to the river. We're not sure what is going on with the team sorting, but nothing has been scheduled. I wonder if we can find another group. We had a nice long ride around the river. Jessie and I warmed up in their arena. We did quite a bit of loping the first half hour. All in all I think we had about a three hour ride. I rode Charlie for the last half hour or so and Ranae rode Jessie.
2 comments:
I take it Jessie is feeling better? How about Max?
Max is better, thanks. He has a much longer way to go. He limps about half the time and we've had to shorten our walks. He's a tough old codger and he just doesn't let anything slow him down (and that's part of the problem)
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