Bareback lessons

I got on Takoda bareback today. This is the first time I have ever been on a horse bareback. She had no saddle, bridle, or halter. I also was not appropriately dressed. I had on blue jean capris and sandles with no helmet. OOPS. It went ok though. We have to work on driving cues. She does the stop ok. I only sat on her for a few minutes but enjoyed almost all of it. I had to get my balance for the first 30 seconds or so.
We got the horses a new toy. It's a hanging apple barn toy. We hung it in the loafing shed. I don't know if they have played with it yet. When I went to town today they had not played with it. I got home and it was too dark to even see where the horses were.

Trade #2, Meet Takoda

So we took Bella back to her mom and got Takoda. Her name was Chula. Takoda is Souix and means "friend of anyone." Chula is Spanish means "pretty girl." I like Takoda better. Anyway, we took Takoda to a friend's for some round pen work yesterday and just did some ground work with her. Today, we went out to the pasture and pond. I did some more ground work with her on longe line for a little while. I then put my saddle on her. Since we had a back cinch, I trotted her again on the line to make sure she was ok with that. I got on her and rode her near the picnic area. Then moved out further and kept working my way out away from my "safe area", the area where my husband was. I rode her into and around in the pond. She did everything I asked her to. I did find that her reverse gear "jumps" a little. When I told her to back up near the house, she did a little hop and spin around on her back legs. Unfortunately, my pasture is not conducive to making her canter and trot for any distance. My goddaughter got on her bareback when she was tied out in the pasture. Mary enjoyed the ride.

Hello Bella and Goodbye

Apparently the trade didn't work. I was ok with the trade of Bella for Tonto. Especially the "for Tonto" part. He is extremely green broke. I guess the previous owners let him do whatever he wanted to when they rode and never made him do what they wanted. He is ok to ride if you don't challenge his opinion of what to do. He has already bucked off and hurt someone at his new home. The part that didn't work was her losing Bella. She decided she can't live without Bella. She's going to let us have a 14yr old Arab/Quarter horse that is for beginners. She is a light bay color. Other than that, I don't know much about her. We'll see.

Tonto's Gone!!

This weekend, we traded Tonto for a better model. As I said in a previous post, Tonto was not the horse for us. Instead, we now have an 18 yr old Tennessee Walker that is about the color of dark chocolate. Her name is Bella. She is very sweet but probably starting to be a little arthritic and needs to gain between 100 and 200 pounds. I got her Saturday and rode her Saturday, and Sunday. I have never ridden a gaited horse and am not entirely sure about how to ride in the gaited walk. I am used to a western pleasure type horse.

Of riding and the inevitable fall...

We went riding yesterday at our riding lessons. Our horse, Scarlet has a cut on her leg we wanted to let heal so we both, the kid and I, rode stable horses. I rode the horse that the kid normally rides. He has a very jarring trot. I am appearantly still learning the proper way to sit through a trot. The kid was on a 19 yr old Arabian hunter. She's beautiful!! She's gray with a beautiful long silky tail. Anyway, so we went in the arena and started riding. My stirrups had to be adjusted so the kid started walking her horse around the arena. We then got into the trotting. I was, as I said, having trouble with the trotting when the kid passed me. As they passed, the horse kicked up her speed a little. The kid did NOT like this and got scared. The kid shrieked for the riding instructor. When the kid did, the horse got spooked and went faster, which prompted the shriek again, and the spook. Every time the kid shrieked, the horse went faster. At one point, the kid was quiet for a second and the horse slowed down. Then, the shriek again, and the horse sped up. This time the horse stumbled and there went the kid over the saddle and the horse's neck. She landed on her helmet. The helmet cracked and her forehead has a nasty red bump. It cracked from the vent hole to the front of the brim, as well as from that crack around the helmet where the brim attaches to the helmet.

You know, I was kind of lax about requiring the kid to wear a helmet. After this accident, I don't think either of us will ever ride without one again. If this happened to the helmet, think about what would have happened without the helmet.

Riding and riding

We have attended 3 riding lessons. The first, I have already discussed. The second lesson was a bit different since there was no riding. We got there and it was raining. Instead of riding, we worked on horse care and grooming. We learned a while back that Scarlet, our mare, had a fungus on her legs. We thought it was gone, but discovered that it is still as strong as ever. We shaved her legs up to her knees and the next day I started to apply generic Listerine to each leg. It's looking better now but I have to continue until they are all good.
This week we rode again and worked on trotting and "half-halting." This is where you slow your horse down but it stays in the same gait. For example, going from a fast trot to a slow trot.

Today, we went to the stables to work. We cleaned some of the stalls, pulled carrots from the garden, and helped bring in horses. We also got a chance to ride. The riding instructor, Lisa, has many beautiful Arabian horses. Some so light grey that they are white. Some are bay, sorrel, and black. She has one poor bay-colored baby that has pneumonia. It is so sick and looks really bad. She has so many doctors working on this one horse that you'd almost think it would get well by osmosis.

Meanwhile, poor Tonto is still up for sale and is being practically neglected. I feed him and groom him as often as possible, but I don't know what to do with him for training. And I do not want to get on him because I can't afford to get hurt. He is right now a very spirited pasture ornament.

Sunday, we went to my dad's house to visit. You would not believe the work that this entailed. We decided to go ride horse and ATV's at his house. Here's how it went. We started getting ready around noon. First, we had to groom the horse and hook the trailer to the truck. We have a 3-horse slant trailer with a tackroom. We had decided that the 4-wheeler should be in the front of the trailer in case there was a problem and we needed to unload the horse quickly. We ran the 4-wheeler up into the trailer and tried to close the front slant gate. It didn't fit. We removed that gate (they come out fairly easily) and closed the other gate.

We then had to find our tie-down straps, tie down the 4-wheeler, and bring the horse around. We had locked Tonto and June in the pasture. Scarlet is very finicky about getting in the trailer. We finally loaded her and I was tying her to the trailer when I heard June (remember, the goat) outside the trailer. She had escaped the pasture - again. We (the husband) wrangled her back in the pasture and we had to tie her up to keep her in the pasture. We made sure all the tack was loaded and almost left the bridle in the house. Then had to load our house horses, the dogs, into the back of the truck. We needed their obedience collars and their leashes.


We finally got to my dad's house and had to unload it all. dogs go first so they don't hurt the horse. Then the horse and tie her just outside the trailer's tackroom. Then the 4-wheeler. Had to re-groom the horse and tack her up. By the time we did all this I was hungry, so it was inside for a quick sandwich. Dad and husband stayed at the house to put together a seeder/spreader. Sis, kid and I went off into the pasture. Sis and kid on the ATV and me on the horse. Woo Hoo!!

I started to follow the 4-wheeler but Scarlet wanted to run after it so I turned her away and went towards the back of the pasture. My dad's cows followed us around for a little while. We went all over his pastures. Through ravines and over logs. Well the 4-wheeler went over less and smaller logs. I had a blast. Scarlet went everywhere I wanted her to go without complaint except into the stock tank my dad has close to his house. I think that the mud was too muddy for Scarlet to follow my instructions into. After instructing her for about 10 minutes to go in various places in the pond, I finally decided that the horse may know something about the mud that I don't and walked her away. We trotted a little in some places that we had already walked across. I was really concerned about animal burrows and other various holes, but when I found a track of land that was solid, flat, and free of holes, I allowed her to trot. She did this willingly enough.

I am learning that Scarlet likes to neck reign better than direct reign and I switched her bit to a ring-snaffle bit. The ring with a bending post through the mouth. We had a shank-snaffle on her, but our riding instructor recommended the ring-snaffle. I guess that I have the names correct.