A Beautiful Day!

I had a great day working horses! The weather was beautiful! Sunshine and blue skies with only a couple inches of crusty snow.

The holidays are over and I’m looking forward to a wonderful riding season. I’ve ridden Cayenne somewhat regularly over the past couple weeks but the rest of the crew has been mostly neglected. I’ve worked Smokey a bit on the ground as her manners need improving. She’s not mean in any way, just overly pushy and non-responsive to pressure for me! I like my horses a touch on the hot side (just a smidge) and she’s not, which is great of most people. That will help her in the kids/novice rider department later.

Today, I ponied Blaze, my now 3yr old gelding. I ponied him yesterday and ground drove him. I looked at my calendar and I put a total of 5 rides on him last fall but he’s not a dead head I feel comfortable getting back on so green! After ponying him today, I ground drove him and then got on and rode him for a few minutes a couple different times. He has been nothing but a gentle character under saddle but I’ve seen that boy move out in the pasture! If I can train him up right, he should be an amazing athlete.

In the midst of working with Blaze today, I took Cayenne for a ride around the property and up the road a ways. She’s full of energy and it’s unfortunate that I can’t lope circles and work on stops and such. The footing in the meadow was good enough to do some stops and rollbacks at a trot. I’m trying to work on all the slow stuff I neglect when I can lope around doing flying lead changes! I’m walking her in lots of circles and winding her down to a hind foot pretty good.

I brought Smarty into the barn and tied him opposite of Cayenne. Thankfully she’s not acting in heat and didn’t cause any trouble. I rode Smarty and sure do enjoy that guy. I have been contemplating gelding him since I don’t breed many mares and would rather spend my time and money riding than buying mares and raising foals. One or two foals every other year would be plenty for me and although I love Smarty’s foals, I can probably buy prospects rather than raise them. His foals have all been very easy to train and showing to be quite athletic, as they should be. While working with and riding him today, I asked myself, “Why would you want to geld a stallion that is so easy to deal with?” He said not one word or took one misstep and is a true pleasure to ride. I guess I’ll just start hauling him to more extreme trail competitions this year.

I put a bridle on Smokey, which I haven’t done yet. I put my fat three-piece “dog bone” snaffle on her and let her get used to it in the round pen for a bit. After working Blaze again, I did some groundwork with Smokey. She’s very smart and picked up quickly. I was a bit put out by her ground manners earlier in the week but she redeemed herself in a snap. I took her out for a walk and some groundwork where there were more distractions. Since the ground is too icy in the round pen, I intend to drive her for a while and do as much on the ground as possible before getting on her out in the open. I’m sure she won’t do anything as she doesn’t seem to have an excitable nature but I’m better safe than sorry!

Every day is a good day when working with horses but particularly good days really make the spirit soar! Today was motivating. I have a good group to work with and feel very fortunate!