Well, after like two weeks of not being able to ride due to busy-ness, weather, and all that fun stuff, I
FINALLY got to ride yesterday. I only rode for about an hour because it started raining and one of my brothers were with us and he had to go have lunch with his wife at her work. :) He even hopped on Red for a minute, but didn't ride. He apparently didn't get the horse gene, or so he says. I think he loves it. ;)
Anywho, we stayed in the round pen today because Red hadn't been rode in awhile and I was worried we'd both be a tad rusty, and since the rain was moving in, I didn't want to be way out in the trails with my horseless brother when it started pouring down the rain. :P :P I am really sore right now though, guess not being able to go riding will do that to you, right??
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| The Redhead. |
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| Mom trotting Red. :) |
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| Awkward face. :)) I was trying to keep him away from that side of the round pen because one of the brattier horses were over on that side trying to bug Red, so I was turning. :)) |
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| LOOK. AT. HIS. BUTT. It's so muscular now!!!! |
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| There we go, better footing, better reining. :)) |
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| His mane is getting sooo long. |
I thought Red was going to be super stubborn once I got in the saddle because he did not want to go in the round pen and wasn't letting us lead him very easily, it kind of looked like this:
But as soon as I got him in the round pen he was great. Mom went to go grab the saddle for me while I led Red around the pen and brushed him out, once he was brushed out I held out my arm to point to something (My brother was with me, I was showing him something, haha!) he laid his head on my arm and seriously just started going to sleep. I was like, seriously, Red???? My brother apparently found it fairly humorous. I took away my arm and started walking again, he followed me, stopped, put his head on my shoulder and started going to sleep again. Lol!
He's gotten to where he really doesn't need a lead anymore, and he'll follow me around everywhere, I love it. :) He's doing so great.
Did you guys get to ride this week?
Aww! Red sounds like such a sweetie! I got to ride yesterday, and it was kind of snowy and I almost fell off. But I didn't :) I mostly ride bareback now, 'cause it's freezing, and I'm kind of lazy and don't want to get the saddle out. :)
ReplyDeleteHe really is. :) One of the reasons I wouldn't want to ride in the snow-Red and I would probably both fall. Lol!!! I've only rode bareback ONCE (Pretty sad right??) but as soon as I improve my riding a little more, I'll be riding bareback more often. Red has fairly high withers, and he's not super comfy to ride bareback. Does doubling count as riding bareback-ish? Lol! I always sit in the back, which means I'm always BEHIND the saddle, so not on it. Hahaha! Thankfully I have pretty low-fuss tack, a simple Hackamore that goes on kind of like a halter, and a saddle pad and saddle. :)
Deletelol! I almost fell off Saturday! I had never ridden Flicka bareback before this summer, and she hadn't had anyone ride her bareback before then. So that was pretty cool that I got to be the first one to ride her bareback. That probably counts as riding bareback. :) I hate going up hills when I sit behing the saddle. You have to have like a death grip on the back because Flicka practically jumps up the hill like a bunny. :) It's pretty funny to watch her. It's cute too!
ReplyDeleteI've only REALLY rode Red bareback once, I'm trying to improve my riding in the saddle before I start riding bareback-I plan on starting riding bareback more this coming Summer. :) Red has pretty high withers so he isn't super comfy bareback, lol!!! And OH MY GOODNESS. Red is SO bumpy!!! When he trots your butt literally comes off the saddle by like, a foot! :)) I am a great doubler. :)) I can stay on the back of that saddle really well. We took a hill once, trotted Red up the hill and I was on the back of the saddle and the lady who we were riding with was like, "HOW did you not fall off?" LOL! I think it's fun. :) Once, my sunglasses fell off and we were trotting up a hill (I was behind the saddle) so I told Red "slow down" and he did (He responds to voices and words pretty well) and got my glasses, then said, "trot" and he took off before I was ready. Almost fell off into a creek. Rofl!
DeleteWe had a pony that had a super bumpy trot. He hated me. He bucked me off every chance he got and even gave me a concussion once. But I was wearing a helmet, so I don't know how that happened. I need to work with Flicka more on voice control. A lot. But she does stop when I put my feet forward and say 'whoa'. :) Flicka's trot is soooo nice and smooth. I love it. It's a lot better than the pony we had. And we had a cremello, (don't know if I spelled that right.) gelding who was kind of buddy sour and me and my brother were riding in our huge hay field, and I was like 9 at the time. But Casper had gotten antsy and was grumpy and started galloping across the field. I was so scared. I hadn't ever really loped for awhile, I had just learned a few weeks before then. I think he went around the whole field once before I got him slowed down and stopped. When I got off I was shaking so bad. It scared me so much! But now I gallop all the time. I love it! :)
ReplyDeleteRed is really good at voice commands, he puts his nose up to my face when I say "Kiss", he will sometimes hug on command, he just has to be in the right mood. He stops on command, trots on command. Holds still on command. I'm going to teach him to bow soon. He also follows me on command, but I never have to tell him to now, he just does it by himself.. The only time Red has ever kind of scared me is when we were in a big clear 4 acre pasture, he started going towards the barn and took off galloping. He saw a piece of tape on a fence and started sidestepping. :)) I got him under control quickly and he settled down. :)) It WAS fun though once I got past the "OH MY GOODNESS!" moment. LOL! Trotting is about as fast as I go now, but once I get better at riding I'll start moving up and going faster.
DeleteI love the after initial, *freak out OH MY GOODNESS* moment. After that it's like, 'hey that was pretty fun' :)) I've been wanting to teach Flicka how to give kisses and hugs, but it's -25ยบ windchill today. Yuck! :( I hate the cold weather.
ReplyDeleteUgh!! That's awful!!! It's gonna get up in the 60's this Sunday and Monday-Hoping I'll be able to ride!!! The kissing command is super easy, just put a treat up to your mouth and say "kiss" and the horse will put it's nose up to the treat. :) I actually was able to teach Red by just grabbing his halter and putting his nose to my mouth and saying "kiss" then just praising and loving on him-He tends to work better with praise and tongue clucks and etc than with treats.
DeleteAww! That's adorable that he gives kisses. I hate the cold weather. It sucks. Ugh.. I'll probably work on it this weekend because we're supposed to get a huge snowstorm tomorrow night/early Thursday morning. Yuck.
ReplyDelete