Tuesday, January 20, 2009

1/18/09 Ransom Quickly

After church, before lunch, I grabbed Ransom. Only a lunge in the round pen, I thought to myself. No reason to make him work hard. I put him in my hunt saddle, convinced I wouldn't ride...

He was adorable. I couldn't help myself. After a ten minute warmup, I hopped on. We worked on walk and trot, working on even transitions, and me focusing on not bearing down my legs on him, staying light on the bit.

Absolutely adorable. I like riding him more with each ride. Total work about 35 minutes.

After lunch, I went to Les, and we rode. I got some walk, trot, AND canter on Blue, another Appendix, but one trained for cows & other swift events. Blue has Ransom's stride, but it's a bit faster. If I stayed on bit contact, I had Ransom's stride and speed. Pretty cool. Like Ransom, Blue's trot is forward, not sideways.

Slipped my saddle up on Amigo, and we headed out for a trail ride. It turned into a rather long one, about two hours in length. We added another ride (R) and a younger horse to our bunch, and wandered a while longer. I took a walk break near the end, my toosh sore from the lunge lesson the day before. No wild adventures this ride, just lots of calm walking along the trail. Amigo looked hard at a few things, but never spooked or reacted, dispite some raucus around him. A very good hack out day in the warm winter sunshine.

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