Score!

I accomplished something today. I rode three horses in an hour and a half. This just does not happen. Usually I don't ride all three in one day, and usually it could take a couple hours for each horse.
I started with Santana. I switched out his bit so that I could start training him to listen to the bit better. I used a twisted wire snaffle (mostly cause it was the bit available).
I found out that he has a bigger hole in his bridle training than I thought. He does neck rein, but doesn't respond as quickly as I would like. He is really hard to turn at the canter, but he did get better. I also found out that he stops on whoa. I don't have to use the reins. No sliding stop, but he still stops. He can't back up real well either. I got it a little bit better though.

I rode Misstack next. All I did was tack her up, put an apple under the cantle of the saddle, behind me (it stayed), and started going up the drive. I got her almost to the end of the pasture fence, and she was walking nicely. I stopped at the fire hydrant, got off, loosened the cinch, and gave her the apple. When she was done, I led her back to the barn. I'll do it again the next time I ride. This is actually a huge improvement in her. Last year, when I tried to get her to cross the drive into the alfalfa field, it took a half hour to do less than 100 feet. And forget about going up the drive. We would either stand there for eternity, or get into a fight about it. Usually the fight. The crazy thoroughbred has improved.

And then Ana...
I rode her bareback. I almost fell of numerous times, and did an emergency dissmount once. When I tried to get back on she moved, so I fixed that and was able to jump up and hook my leg over, but I was too lazy to finish the action and she stood still, so I got back down, went to the little water trough, stepped on that and got on. Ahhh... much easier. She even stood still. I cantered her too. Ya know when I try to convince myself to kiss Ana in to a canter it's hard. The trot is worse, but somehow the canter seems worse. But once I just make myself get Ana into a canter, I am amazed by the feeling. It's like nothing I have ever experienced before. It's Amazing...


I worked with the fillies too. I worked on leading at the walk and trot. And have I ever mentioned that they can do a perfect turn on the hindquarters. It's soo cool!  Toffy was the best. She walked away from the other horses pretty good, and when we turned around, and I asked her to trot, she did it right away without me pulling on the lead rope. We trotted back to the other horses and I let her loose. I was thinking that this might make a bad habit, but right now, it's using their natural desire to get back to the heard to teach them how to trot. I think that eventually we'll just have to keep them trotting though the heard to get it so it doesn't become a bad habit.