Playing Catchup

Okay, I haven't really been keeping everyone informed about what's been going on lately.
So, I will catchup.
I found out about two weeks ago that Santana is a very good trail horse. My hyper barrel horse is good at trails! I have wanted to get him on a trail ever since we were at the fair. I suspected he would be a good trail horse, because while I was walking him around, I found a little "obstacle course" He went up the side of the hill, across tin, across wood, and stepped up on a cement slab. It was fun! So to test my suspicion that he would be a good trail horse we rode from Terry's to the Rosen farm. We put him in a stall, and then worked with the fillies. Aleythia was with me on Ana, and she was trying to get Ana to calm down, and Santana was freaking out a bit because he couldn't see his buddy.
We also opened the door from the pasture to the barn, and saw if the fillies wanted to go in. Frosty was being her curious and fearless self and went right in. Then Coffie was convinced that it wasn't too bad, and she stepped in. Dash took a little more convincing, but she did eventually go in. Toffy didn't even try to go in. She just stood there looking into the barn.
We have also been working on putting up a fence in the grove at the rosen farm so that they can graze out there. We got it finished last week. The fillies go right in there not even worrying about the pine trees. When supper time comes, they put their heads down and run. They have also been joined by the three other mares at the Rosen farm. Flicka being one of them. Ooooh that fat, bossy, lazy thing. I think I have established that I am boss mare. She needs to learn that I have a bubble space.
When Flicka was about two, she almost stepped on my toes trotting past us.

Aleythia and I were sitting on a barrel in the paddock, when fat little two year old Flicka comes trotting in our direction. We thought she was gunna say hello, but when she got to us she kept going and her hooves were an inch away from stepping on my toes. Well, I was afraid for my toes livelihood so I jerked them back. And she just kept trotting along ears pricked, right into the barn.

I realize now that I should have seen that she had no intention of stopping, and that I should have kicked her in the rear for intruding in my bubble. But alas, it did not occur to me.
We need to start working with that pill of a horse.

We tried the loose rein thing with Ana. Aleythia took her out into the alfalfa field and let her go whatever speed she wanted. All Aleythia required was that Ana go the direction she wanted...
And she did awesome! She cantered for maybe ten minutes, went down to a walk (on her own!), cantered a little more, walked, and then trotted the rest of the time.
We think that the reason she doesn't want to walk is because she thinks that walking does not cover enough ground. Which is pretty much saying she has no patience for walking.

With Misstack I worked on her stops.
Misstack has terrible stops. They are rough, and she fights the bit. She can now do a really quick and easy stop (for me and her) at the walk, and she doesn't like it when I ask her to stop from the canter. She throws her head. Every time I asked her to stop, I also asked her to back up until she wasn't fighting the bit. She is much better.
I am also working on her neck reining... It's a work in progress.

I also took Santana out into the Alfalfa field and let him go as fast as he wanted.
Man can he boggie! It didn't take him long to figure out that I wasn't going to hold him back when he started running. After the third time of him running as fast as he could go and resting, he was able to reach his top speed in his second or third stride out.
It felt like I wasn't moving at all. And that makes sence, because the faster his stride is the smaller your rocking motion gets.
Have you ever seen the old Zorro shows? Where he races away from the town on Tornado (said with a spanish accent)? Aleythia said it looked like that.
I have pictures, but I am having trouble with my flash drive, and my computer. Grrrr.