Kitari
Well-Known Member
Well nothing like a leisurely ride where one just walks around, trots a bit, enjoys the breeze on top of a horse and then said horse just well dissapears leaving nothing but confusion and a bridle in hand. What was going on, am I dreaming? Having hallucinations? Off in another world? Anything...?
It was Red's second ride since her eye injury, and since the camera was MIA I decided to just take Red out for a leisurely trail. No biggie, Red LOVES trails. So we eagerly head out. Of course everything is like sparkling new to her, she must see and stare at everything.
We see the horses across the street, she wants to run and greet them, I say no and she huffs but behaves and we keep walking. She wants to ogle the jogger exercising in the undeveloped subdivision. All in all she behaved fairly well. We walked along the road for a bit, went down a hill explored that area a bit, came back up the steepest section at the walk, sense I wouldnt let her trot up it. We continued on out of the subdivision and into the hay field. This hayfield has been in several previous posts, its huge half a mile long between 1/8th and 1/4th a mile wide, I mean its HUGE and best of all I can ride in it.
We went to the soggy area first and I got to see Red go "Ewwww mud!" as she slogged through it, then we wandered around the hay section of the field making our leisurely was along, we hit the midpoint and Red gets excited, she can see her feet! But it was an easy energy to control, i decided to do point A to point B trotting. Well it went alright, I mean it definatly could of been better! he just didnt want to stop she was loving it, being able to be out and about stretching her legs. But with minimal fuss she would walk. We did this the entire way down that section, walking and trotting, and we did it a little bit back to the midline. Both halves of the hay field are 1/4th mile long, so its split directly in the middle. ed was happy, she felt good, she felt easy to control, so I decided to turn her back around to the clear half of the hayfield to trot out the whole 1/4th mile.
It wasnt a big decision, Ive had her trot an 8th of it before what was the 8th gonna do right? No biggie. She acted a bit frisky earlier trying to be a mini nut, but it wasnt anything unexpected and nothing I thought I couldnt handle. and I felt she could use the release the trotting 1/4th would give her. So I set her up, walked her up before asking her to trot. It wasnt exactly straight but she was moving well, she was happy ears forward, tail up. She tried to go a bit faster at the trot and I told her no, so she did the smoothest canter transition Ive ever felt her do, it was flawless. But I told her "no" and she went back to the trot. So far so good.
We hit the 1/8th point, where I would normally have her walk again, and at that point I find myself going "where's my horse?"
I have to say my fall was awesome. As she bucked my happy butt off, I did a perfect tuck and roll as I sailed over her shoulder onto the not so soft ground.
Now of course let me list the several things I did wrong that helped me in my flight.
1: I was leaning forwards. 2: Pinching at the knees. 3: Perching in my saddle 4: Posting from my toes. 5: Hands in my lap. 6: Stiff upper body 7: Closed hip angles 8:Looking down 9: Trotting in a big field with shorter stirrups without first getting used to them being shorter; and of course 10: Not paying attention to her mouting frustration at not being able to go faster/at the gait she wanted to.
So as you can see, I was just asking for it.
So I got up, breath knocked out of me, left to walk back that half mile with just myself, my helmet (and to think I was considering not wearing it with her anymore!) and a bridle....
Wait...
Her bridle?!
Yep, thats right! I was left walking back with her bridle. How in the world did that happen I haven't a clue. I remember long before Ive had moments of dumbness and tried to take her bridle off without undoing her throat-latch and I wasn't able to. I dont have it tight by anymeans, but certainly not loose enough to just slip right off. While puzzling this out I called my neighbour to make sure Red made it home allright, and my neighbour apparently thought i was loosing it because I came to realise trying to talk while getting your breath back isn't a good idea and makes you sound at the least hysterical and about ready to have a panic attack.
But Red made it back alright, Neighbor tied her up for me, made sure I was fine (I was laughing hysterically half way back at the hilarity of it all) I got back to Red, covered in sweat, shaking like a leaf, eyes rolling, and blowing like crazy. Great, just great I was getting back on THAT bundle of dynamite.
But get back on I did. I walked her around a bit in the yard, trotted her around, and then went right back out to the hayfield. A glutton for punishment, I am.
Red. Was. Wired.
She was shaking like a leaf, and basically just spooking at everything. I did see the tail end of her bid for freedom when she threw me, she had started off happy but then freaked out when my sturrups kept hitting her and then she spooked a bunch of birds which spooked her, etc. So now she was just wigging. Out in the hay field there are ALOT of birds, so needless to say i was on a quivering mass of horse bombness. gradually we made it back out to where she bucked me off. We walked and trotted around, worked on stopping, basically I tried to keep her mind on me and that was a battle, with the light fading out with the sun, birds flushing every other step she took. But in the end I did win. I got her to relax and stop spooking every time a bird flushed out, even a flock of birds. Got her to listen and work with me until we finally got back home.
Even then our work was not yet done. She was finally cooled off, no longer shaking, moving easier, but work was still not done, I worked on her ground work in and out of the pasture, making her focuse on me and not being home until she finally did relax and chill out.
So overall it ended on a good note, and I sit here knowing that when I get up in the morning I am going to be stiff as a board. And yet i know I will go back out tomorrow and do it again.
and here is the video I made on my way home. please watch and enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P8zFVmiRIU
It was Red's second ride since her eye injury, and since the camera was MIA I decided to just take Red out for a leisurely trail. No biggie, Red LOVES trails. So we eagerly head out. Of course everything is like sparkling new to her, she must see and stare at everything.
We see the horses across the street, she wants to run and greet them, I say no and she huffs but behaves and we keep walking. She wants to ogle the jogger exercising in the undeveloped subdivision. All in all she behaved fairly well. We walked along the road for a bit, went down a hill explored that area a bit, came back up the steepest section at the walk, sense I wouldnt let her trot up it. We continued on out of the subdivision and into the hay field. This hayfield has been in several previous posts, its huge half a mile long between 1/8th and 1/4th a mile wide, I mean its HUGE and best of all I can ride in it.
We went to the soggy area first and I got to see Red go "Ewwww mud!" as she slogged through it, then we wandered around the hay section of the field making our leisurely was along, we hit the midpoint and Red gets excited, she can see her feet! But it was an easy energy to control, i decided to do point A to point B trotting. Well it went alright, I mean it definatly could of been better! he just didnt want to stop she was loving it, being able to be out and about stretching her legs. But with minimal fuss she would walk. We did this the entire way down that section, walking and trotting, and we did it a little bit back to the midline. Both halves of the hay field are 1/4th mile long, so its split directly in the middle. ed was happy, she felt good, she felt easy to control, so I decided to turn her back around to the clear half of the hayfield to trot out the whole 1/4th mile.
It wasnt a big decision, Ive had her trot an 8th of it before what was the 8th gonna do right? No biggie. She acted a bit frisky earlier trying to be a mini nut, but it wasnt anything unexpected and nothing I thought I couldnt handle. and I felt she could use the release the trotting 1/4th would give her. So I set her up, walked her up before asking her to trot. It wasnt exactly straight but she was moving well, she was happy ears forward, tail up. She tried to go a bit faster at the trot and I told her no, so she did the smoothest canter transition Ive ever felt her do, it was flawless. But I told her "no" and she went back to the trot. So far so good.
We hit the 1/8th point, where I would normally have her walk again, and at that point I find myself going "where's my horse?"
I have to say my fall was awesome. As she bucked my happy butt off, I did a perfect tuck and roll as I sailed over her shoulder onto the not so soft ground.
Now of course let me list the several things I did wrong that helped me in my flight.
1: I was leaning forwards. 2: Pinching at the knees. 3: Perching in my saddle 4: Posting from my toes. 5: Hands in my lap. 6: Stiff upper body 7: Closed hip angles 8:Looking down 9: Trotting in a big field with shorter stirrups without first getting used to them being shorter; and of course 10: Not paying attention to her mouting frustration at not being able to go faster/at the gait she wanted to.
So as you can see, I was just asking for it.
So I got up, breath knocked out of me, left to walk back that half mile with just myself, my helmet (and to think I was considering not wearing it with her anymore!) and a bridle....
Wait...
Her bridle?!
Yep, thats right! I was left walking back with her bridle. How in the world did that happen I haven't a clue. I remember long before Ive had moments of dumbness and tried to take her bridle off without undoing her throat-latch and I wasn't able to. I dont have it tight by anymeans, but certainly not loose enough to just slip right off. While puzzling this out I called my neighbour to make sure Red made it home allright, and my neighbour apparently thought i was loosing it because I came to realise trying to talk while getting your breath back isn't a good idea and makes you sound at the least hysterical and about ready to have a panic attack.
But Red made it back alright, Neighbor tied her up for me, made sure I was fine (I was laughing hysterically half way back at the hilarity of it all) I got back to Red, covered in sweat, shaking like a leaf, eyes rolling, and blowing like crazy. Great, just great I was getting back on THAT bundle of dynamite.
But get back on I did. I walked her around a bit in the yard, trotted her around, and then went right back out to the hayfield. A glutton for punishment, I am.
Red. Was. Wired.
She was shaking like a leaf, and basically just spooking at everything. I did see the tail end of her bid for freedom when she threw me, she had started off happy but then freaked out when my sturrups kept hitting her and then she spooked a bunch of birds which spooked her, etc. So now she was just wigging. Out in the hay field there are ALOT of birds, so needless to say i was on a quivering mass of horse bombness. gradually we made it back out to where she bucked me off. We walked and trotted around, worked on stopping, basically I tried to keep her mind on me and that was a battle, with the light fading out with the sun, birds flushing every other step she took. But in the end I did win. I got her to relax and stop spooking every time a bird flushed out, even a flock of birds. Got her to listen and work with me until we finally got back home.
Even then our work was not yet done. She was finally cooled off, no longer shaking, moving easier, but work was still not done, I worked on her ground work in and out of the pasture, making her focuse on me and not being home until she finally did relax and chill out.
So overall it ended on a good note, and I sit here knowing that when I get up in the morning I am going to be stiff as a board. And yet i know I will go back out tomorrow and do it again.
and here is the video I made on my way home. please watch and enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P8zFVmiRIU
