Today I took Freedom to my friend who had a nice DRY arena. Ours is still a mud pool and too dangerous to ride in.
It was the first time a ride him after he catapulted me off so I was a bit tense. After I mounted him he started walking good, but within 5 minutes he stopped and did not want to go anymore. The more I asked him the more tension I felt and he was about to explode again. So I dismounted and did some ground work with him. Made him trot changing directions yield his hindquarters etc. When he did good I got back on. My friend’s son just entered the arena too so I ask if I could follow him and there we went. We even trotted but he wanted to stop every chance he got.
Then my friend came with her mare and she wanted to do some trot exercises so we followed her and out of the blue…..ping he got it. He started to relax and trotted around and around.
After he did that in both directions I made him stop and petted him and that was the end of the ride.
He stood there like he just run the Kentucky Derby.
I left him at her place so we can do it again tomorrow and that will be it because heavy weather is coming in again (T-storms) but I am glad we got to do this!
Marion, Kentucky
Hidden Cave Ranch
I bet you feel a whole lot better now having a successful ride back under your belt!! Way to go
ReplyDeleteMarion that is AWESOME!!!!! Way to go lady....you are so brave--and cautiously wise!! I love that Freedom got it after finding it OK to relax following another horse around. Then to call it quits on a positive note, well I am sure he thought he just ran the Derby....stressful stuff, ya know?!?! Looking forward to your next ride....
ReplyDeleteDitto what Lesly said - AWESOME! I am so glad that you got a nice ride in after that bad experience. GREAT JOB listening to your horse and your gut feeling!!! I hope you get out again today and have another positive and successful jaunt on Freedom.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Marion. I got left in the dirt almost 3 years ago now. I've only ridden a couple of times since then, and I do still have that pit feeling in my gut, and I do still get some back pain from time to time where I really was injured after that fall. I'm afraid to ride alone at all now. I'm so glad you have friends to ride with so you can get good experiences under your belt quickly!
ReplyDeleteThat is such great progress! Don't you just love those 'ping' moments when your horse understands what you want! I can imagine you were a bit tense to start with but this great ride probably helped a lot with that! A good idea to change the plan a bit and first do groundwork when you feel he is going to explode. It sounds like it worked out great! Keep it up!
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