A few weeks ago, I decided I really want to ride in the Kenlyn Endurance Ride on April 26th. I think Z is near to ready and I had a buddy that wanted to do it with me. My buddy dropped out last week, worried that the excitement will be too much and be detrimental to what she and her horse have built. So, I was going to be the solo rider. No problem. I mentioned it to my personal trainer and she wanted IN! Now, I've got to have 2 horses ready and I think we're better off going for the 15 than the 25.
We did our first training ride yesterday and went for 13. I'm concerned about starting too fast, but my horses are not starting from ground zero. They will cover 7-8 mile rides 1-3 times/week. We took 3 horses (Z, Rain, Cowboy), taking 2 extras so Stoney could decide who she'd rather ride. She preferred a non-gaited ride so Rain will go along as my pony horse on training rides.
The 2nd half, Stoney rode Rain and I ponied Cowboy. Both my mares are not happy about Cowboy being around and pony-ing him off Z was quite an experience. She got better, but there was plenty of bucking and kicking in the canter back at Cowboy and I'm sure she has a headache from pinning her ears so much. :-) I probably won't do that again and I understand she has a job to do as lead mare and I'm imposing on that by asking her to pony Cowboy. I also need her to do a job - tough position. Probably a great example of one of the reasons people prefer geldings.
Between travel and weather that was my first riding in a week. Ugh!
Then, someone came to check out Gemini. He was not with me AT ALL. We played on the ground and I just couldn't get his mind. He got better but I just couldn't get him with me. I thought he was good enough to get on and we started to work on getting together. He was terrible - he didn't want to give, he argued with my hands constantly, he wanted to look at the herd and turn to the herd and nothing else. I backed him up some, rode him at a trot, worked on isolation of the ends, but he was really not getting better. I stayed with him and all of sudden he started to rear and buck. He did a holy mother-of-God humpbacked all 4 feet in the air buck, at least 7 times. I started to count - I had that much time. When he stopped, I sat there going - WTF??? He shocked me.
I immediately told them to feel free to drive away. I couldn't get off him, I had to keep riding him so he'd know that wasn't the answer. I stayed on him about 40 more mins. Of course, he got much better and started to give and get softer. I'm not riding him enough, obviously. I'm barely riding him at all. I'm not really playing with him either. He's getting little to no training time from me and he's telling me that's a bad move.
Now what? I guess I see about getting Starlet back to Tammy or selling her. I can't keep 4 horses anymore. It's just too much. I can't sell a bucking bronc, either. After all the drama with his hock, and losing that sale, I just wonder if this horse will ever leave my barn. Bizarre.
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