10/18/14

Night Rides

Tacked up last night with one of Spirit's old pals. He's a friend of Spirit's old owner and really liked him so we invited him out to come ride him and I decided to go ahead and tack up as well since, A. Spirit is terrible being away from Red and we didn't want to deal with it since he hasn't been worked in like 3 weeks. And B. Red really, really needed a workout, lol. It was getting dark already by the time we got everyone ready but it was really nice. We started out in the front part of the pasture and warmed them up and they were both really fresh. We let them do some trotting and I worked on Red's jog. He did really good for the first few minutes once he got what I was asking for (first a trot, then a jog, then a bit of an extended trot) and was happy to just be going faster than a walk.

Bad picture quality wise and my heels aren't down but he's starting to understand the "extended trot" thing.



We let them canter on the trails towards the hay field and then loped up the hill where my step-dad had made a little clearing for galloping. A huge deer jumped maybe 5 feet away from us out of the hay and freaked out a little when it couldn't figure out how to get away, lol. Luckily the horses were amazing and didn't do more than just stare at it like "why are you so scared man let's be friends" and Red tried to walk over to it but Mrs. Deer wasn't super happy about that.

We trotted around up there then walked back down the hill on the buckle and let them walk back down towards the barn again. We rode pretty much everywhere and the horses did perfect.

 Step-dad isn't the best photographer.



I worked on my position a lot. Mom helped me out with bounciness when she saw that I wasn't riding quietly and by the end of the ride I felt like I had done a good job, and it wasn't just Red doing amazing and dealing with me. The ground was still sloppy and wet in some places and Red was full of energy and didn't do his best when it came to slowing his trot down but he still did really good regardless and it was still 100x better than what his trot looked and felt like before.

This morning I went out and did some liberty with the goober. About halfway in Shalom decided to join in and it was really neat. He's so people oriented and willing to please. At one point him and Red were working really well in sync and following/trotting after me. Once Shalom is in tip-top shape and I have my arena built I'd really love to see how far they'll go together with liberty. Red did perfect and was backing up and following completely tackless (took off his halter and everything) and doing everything I asked until the mare across the street decided that galloping around and playing was fun and Red galloped away to see her. ;)


THIS HAY IS DELICIOUS

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I'm headed out to a rodeo this evening to take some pictures for some folks and see some friends compete. Hopefully the lighting will be better today (last time it was rainy and blah) and I'll get some good shots to share.

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