Monday, July 14, 2008

Something New on the Trail

Tonight, with Steve and Delaney off to Karate with Kyle in tow to job-hunt, Kendall and I decided to hit the trail. I needed exercise so I put Kendall on Zarah with the bareback pad and brought an extra 22' so that we could practice ground driving. Kendall is making huge strides getting over her fears on the horses. For some reason, when she turned 6 she was all of sudden worried about getting hurt. She's slowly coming around and today she rode Z bareback for 5 miles! I was very proud of her - lots of steep ups and downs, trees to duck under, obstacles to maneuver... Big deal for her.

About 2 miles in, I added the 22' to Z's halter and started trying to ground drive with Kendall on her back. That didn't work so well as I needed the ability to throw the ropes over Z's back and Kendall was in the way. I had Kendall hop off while I got Z going with the ground driving. After about 1/4 mile, we had it going and I put Kendall back on. She really enjoyed being on Z's back while I ground drove! It was cute.

Anyway, all in all a great time! I got a 5 mile hike up and down hills, Kendall gained a ton of confidence riding bareback on an Anglo-Arab on the trail and Z got time to eat some grass and hit the trail w/o the pressure of me on her back. I loved it.

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