Thursday, April 8, 2010

It takes the time it takes

Today, KK and I hopped on for a trail ride. We are going to ride an endurance ride soon, so we're trying to get the horses ready. We're doing just a short ride, Kendall's first (15 miles). She's pretty excited, as am I. We did a 5 mile ride with some trotting and cantering and had a fun time! Z was calm and happy as long as she was leading. We need to do more practice in the back. Rain was her usual, great trail-horse self.

When we got back, I wanted to put a ride on Tina. It was windy and chilly. It was interesting - I realize the wind makes the world much more stimulating to a horse, but Tina was so on edge today. She couldn't stand still for grooming - something she usually enjoys. She just wasn't the calm horse she's become. Then during warmup for riding, she was bucking from the feel of the saddle. I decided not to ride her and instead to focus on getting her calm and then using her energy to do some neat things.

We played for about an hour and at the end she was better, but still not as calm as she's been. I've fed a little alfalfa lately and maybe she can't tolerate it. I know she's stimulated by the wind, but this was much more than the wind. I'll play with her tomorrow and see how that goes. I'll also make sure she doesn't get any alfalfa for a week and see if that helps.

On the bright side, she did some amazing sideways trotting and her s-pattern was very good! I was impressed with her jumping, too. She's jumping 2.5 feet freely and efficiently. Her canter is loosening up, too. I will spend the next 3 days (Fri-Sun) building her up and expect a much different session by Sunday.

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