It's sad really. I have been riding these horses for over three years (some longer), and I am still finding out stuff about them. Like Santana is an awesome trail horse! Another is that he doesn't respond really well to the bridle at top speeds. Misstack is a nut job. (I already knew that, I just get it confirmed almost every time I ride.) I can't get her to listen at higher speeds either. Turning... sure. Stopping... Over my dead body!
I will now explain.
Yesterday we went trail riding with a friend (H). She rode Santana, because I figured he would be the best behaved. And also because with one previous trail ride I knew he would be okay.
We trailered out to a park that is about five miles away. Well, I had H ride Santana in the paddock before we left just so she could check him out, but anyway. We got to the park we took them out and bridled them. We had already put saddles on at home. We took the dividers out so that they would fit comfortably in the trailer. And we started our trail ride.
We soon figured out that Misstack hated to be in front. We also had to cross a bridge and none of the horses would do it. I got of Misstack and tried to lead her across, but obviously her trust in me is a little lacking. So, I handed Misstack's lead to H and led Santana across (what a perfect little boy). After that Santana was our leader for most of the trail ride. He only had to be led across on our third bridge, then he was fine. I love horses that are sensible. Ana stayed in the back for a lot of the trail just because she wouldn't try to run in the back. Once when Ana was in the front she was getting all prancy so Aleythia put her in the back and Ana gave a big sigh and started walking, resigned to her fate.
We also figured out that deer trails do not make good horse trails. In fact even the trails that were man made were not the best to ride in because the branches were too low for a rider to pass under comfortably. Mostly it was close your eyes and let your horse follow the one in front. We did see deer by the way. Three of them. One when we started, and two fawns near the end of our ride.
There was one time that Misstack was in the front for quite a while, and that was when we were coming back on the path we just traveled. It was right next to the field and Misstack wanted to go faster, so I let her. She ran down that path like the race horse she is. Actually she could have gone faster, but I didn't want her to go too fast because it was H's first ride with Santana and I didn't know how they would fare. Well, I was trying to pull her up, and she wouldn't slow down. It was probably ten seconds of me pulling back on the reins before I was like, shoot it, she's not slowing down, so when we got to a more open area I was able to turn her. H was grinning about the run. She exclaimed that Santana could go fast! She was used to the slow easy canter of camp horses. She hadn't ridden a horse that did what you asked right away. Usually it takes some kicking. I was happy that she could experience a little part of what a barrel horse was like. We cantered once more, with Ana in the front, and that was all the cantering we did.
There are like no hills. None. I want to go somewhere were the terrain is a little more challenging.
Today I looked around the barn for whatever odd stuff I could find for Misstack to get used to. We had three tires, a tarp, a horse blanket, a couple exercise balls, a plank, some wire fence, a tin garbage can, and a horse eating monster.
It was extremely windy so we put boards on the edge of the tarp to hold it down.
I went and got Misstack from the alfalfa field and let her loose in the pen. She jumped the tires, jumped the plank, hesitated at the wire fence layed on the ground and jumped it, and I forgot the rug, she jumped that too. There was also a board layed on the ground and she stepped over that. We had the tarp more towards the center of the pen, so she just kinda ignored it. After a little while of having her running around she was stepping on the board, the wire fence, and the rug. I caught her again and led her over everything. She did very well. The tarp actually wasn't a really big issue for her. She took one step on it, I let her stand, backed her up, stepped on again and walked across. She stepped over the plank, stepped on the wire fence, and stepped across the rug.
Then came the horse eating monster... She hated it. She would freak out over it touching the air around her, and if it was anywhere near her head and she couldn't go anywhere be watchful of flying hooves. After a good forty-five minutes of waving the horse eating monster around on the end of the whip she was still freaking out if it went anywhere near her head. I was finally like, I can't get anything accomplished with this crazy wind. I took her inside the barn. I desensitized the air space around her head with the plastic ba-horse eating monster. Before this I took it off the whip because it was more of a pain than it was worth. I could rub her cheek with the bag and was eventually able to work my way over her eye, to her forehead, to her poll, around her ears, and eventually around her nose. Next time I'll do the obstacles while I ride. I'll probably review the plastic bag too.
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