Lessons

The horses were saddled and we were ready to go on our ride. H and I walked up and out of the driveway, took a left into town, and then another left at the first road. We were maybe halfway down the road when a black man pulls up and asks when he can ride

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Ya know what. Even if I don't become a trainer and just own horses (if I don't, be surprised) I will open my barn to anyone who is willing to learn how to ride and I will have the horses to do it. My siblings can't ride because we don't have a suitable horse and neither can anyone else. We have an awesome black horse who is great with kids, unfortunately she's a pony and has really bad arthritis. We don't use Strudder because he also has arthritis and is almost always lame, and he's an English horse. Stretch is too old and can't get running out of his head anyway. Ana doesn't have breaks, and Terry doesn't trust Misstack with beginners and she can be such a nut job. Santana is the most likely to buck someone off and can be a handful. The fillies aren't an option.

My personal opinion is that Misstack and Santana would be our best choices. Misstack is a really nice horse when she knows where she is. Santana won't (probably anyway) buck or become hyper if he walks and trots and check him at the canter before he gets too fast. And besides a couple rounds of letting him run gets him calmed down pretty well. And he's probably the best trail horse we have.

Terry also is wary of letting people ride his horses because if they get hurt and sue him he could lose everything. What he should do is actually put that sign up in his barn warning people that horses are unpredictable and that they could get hurt. It might be a good idea and he couldn't get sued if he had that up.

 

But I had a really nice trail ride with H today. It was beautiful weather. I'm talking 60 to 70 degrees here. And despite Santana getting hyper when we ran across a field it wasn't too bad. We ended nicely. Before we left we went into the paddock to get any kinks out and it was kinda cool, because Ana followed Misstack and me around for quite a while. She pivoted when I turned Misstack into her neck, stopped when we stopped, followed when we turned away. It was funny.

I showed H what Coffie does when you breathe into her nose. It gave us a good laugh. And because I can't remember if I told you what she does I will tell you  know. Whenever you breathe into her nose she immediately puts her nose up in the air, rolls back her lips, and puts a disgusted look on her face. Silly horsey. It's probably a trick now because we pet her every time she does it.

And I worked with one filly after our ride and H got to see the problems that are presented the first time a horse learns to drive. Does anyone else think that sentence is funny? Go back and read it... You'll understand.

Frosty did extremely well. Well, not in the beginning. A little bit of advice if you are teaching a horse anything for the first time don't have pressure that's constantly there. It makes them frustrated. I'll give you an example. The halter was snug against her nose, she bent her head, but didn't find release. She lowered her head and braced against pressure. No release. Well, maybe a little one, because that was her solution to unending pressure. So now she braces against the halter and when I ask her to turn she puts her head down low and leans against the halter. I wait. She puts her head in the right direction. She is rewarded with a little bit of a release, but she still has that pressure. I wait. She steps, I release. Some of you might understand this example better. Try taking an uneducated horse and holding his head like you would a more advanced horse just as long as you would a more advanced horse too. Please take a video. I would love to see the results.