Another Great Ride

Zoe and I had another great ride!  We started off on the patience tree but she was good to go almost immediately so I tacked her up and lunged her.  She was tuned in and ready to rock!  I mounted up with some assistance from Hubby and he led us around for a few steps and then we were on our own.  Side note:  Zoe has never been ridden in wide open spaces before and our arena was being used as a holding pen for some cows and calves so we were in our HUGE front yard.  I wasn't sure how she would handle it so that's why hubby came in to help for a minute, I guess for our my piece of mind!  Anyways, we worked on steering and her neck reining, which was awesome!  Last fall we left off working on neck reining and she was starting to get it, but this ride she was almost right on every time!  I didn't have to correct her much while walking so I asked for a trot.  At first her head flew up and she almost jumped out of her skin!  So I asked her again and this time she trotted right away.  She tried to rush and wasn't listening to me for direction and would suddenly stop.  I just kept on going, keeping her trotting  until she settled into a nice working trot.  We did some direction changes, figure eights, circles and such.  Her neck reining wasn't as good at the trot as it was at the walk but we will work on that.  We didn't work on canter because if her steering isn't good at the trot then it won't be any better at a faster gait!  We ended the ride once I had a good figure eight without breaking the trot.  She was a good girl!

I also had a good ride on Star the other day.  It was my first ride on her and she was feeling pretty good!  I was having a bad day and needed a break from it all so I got Star out and we went for a short trail ride.  She was very alert and pulled on me just about the whole time.  We had to do some stopping and backing, and circling before she calmed down and I could ride with a relaxed rein.  She has a tendency to lift her head to avoid contact when she wants to go faster and I hadn't seen that in a while but it resurfaced on this ride!!  Anyways, by the time we got home she had her head where it should be and I had a loose rein.  It was a beautiful day out and we both enjoyed ourselves very much!  Star loves going on trail rides - just hates crossing ditches and going through water (she will, just takes a few tries)!!

Well, that's all for now!  More updates soon!

Until next time!




Quote for the day:
"When one teaches, two learn."

-Robert Half