Finally get to ride one of my Curlies - yahoo!

I have been riding already - quite a bit - but have been putting time on my Arabian mare to get some of the excessive weight off of her and also to get me back in the saddle before I begin riding my rather green horses.  So I have been keeping up on the previous ground work that I have posted about - with my "feral" mare DKH Lacey (she is really starting to come around) and also with my homebred mare *Sheila Sister Act.
*Sheila should have been a piece of cake to start under saddle last year, but I was so busy that I decided to try to hire some help to get a few of them going iwth some basic ground work and that turned out to be a HUGE mistake as the "trainer" (I am generous to use that title) really ruined my horse in one and a half short sessions.  Now, I'm not going to post about that, but suffice to say that I then turned *Sheila out for the rest of the season, hoping she would forget some of it and now I am doing really baby steps with her to rebuild her trust and confidence with me and I am happy to say that while it is slow - it IS working! Yay!  So here is a picture of *Sheila, she is the feminine image of her sire *Sandman.

Okay - so when I get a chance I'll post more about how she is doing in her ground work - but for now I want to say how pleased and excited I am to be BACK IN THE SADDLE on one of my Curlies!  This is *Shesa Magic Charm:

 

I have to admit that this is a picture of us from last spring - no one around to take our picture YET, but I will get some soon as we have been riding every day this week.  *Charm is also a homebred filly - she has a TON of go and she has challenged me to learn a lot more about horse language than most horses with the exception probably of her sire *Sandman's Magic, who being a stallion required me to learn a LOT about myself, timing, training and overall horsemanship.  *Charm is one of the most trained horses that I have started, she has had extensive ground work and a lot of miles in the arena, but htis year is her year to get out on the trail and to that end, after I rode her yesterday I took her for a walk in hand down the road.  I am very happy to report that she was very very mannerly and well behaved - this is a HUGE improvement over this time last year when she was just beside herself to be on her own - she is coimng 5 years old this year and something she has taught me is that all horses do NOT mature at the same rate and she is just now ready for this next step in her trianing.  Anyhow, we have had several very good rides already - since she has not been ridden since October 2009 I am well pleased with her!  So I will try to get some newer pictures of her to post here - have to corral someone into taking them for me.

So, one last thign that I have been doing is that I have a trainer workigng with my stallion *Sandman's Magic this year - a GOOD trainer!  Anyhow, I usually ride him myself, but I have opted to have a high calibre rider take SM a bit further than I can do myself and so I did the early ground work wiht SM - lunging him to get him ready to ride etc., and then the trainer Luis has been riding him for me - for the past couple of weeks.  I hope you all don't mind if I post a picture of SM here - to stay on topic, I will post a couple of me working with SM and one of Luis riding him.

  

  

  

Shelly

www.curlystandardplace.com