Sunday, November 7, 2010

The weekend that was

No photos still but I have located the camera again so will be able to get some soon.

Saturday morning I caught the new mare who looked awful with her REALLY long mane and straggly tail. Amazing what a good trim and a mane tidy will do for the overall appearance of a horse. She's a bit light in condition, and all that mane made her neck look very poor.
She looks much better already.

We saddled her up and attempted a bit of lungeing as we have no real idea of what she can and can't do. Also not been ridden for 11 mths and only 5 yrs old, = almost anything could happen in our book!

She was super though. No problem at all so Summer got caught and we took them both off for a ride around the farm.
It's been a very long time since the 2 of us went out for a horse ride and I have to say it was really pleasant.

Grace (new mare) didn't want to cross the muddy creek however so Charlie got off and handed her nice long reins to me and Summer and I waited in the middle of the creek, allowing her all the time she wanted to work it out. She never went backwards but dithered for a while and then launched herself at us!!!
Summer stood her ground (she can be fantastic like that) but my right arm took a decent whack. A few more bruises to add to the collection.
After that though the mare was great and crossed the water a few times before we continued on the ride.
She tired quickly so we didn't do too much but she was so very well behaved and we were really impressed!

This morning Stan came out so Summer and I went for a quiet farm ride with him and this afternoon Charlie and I took the 2 mares down to the beach.
Again we had no idea of what the mares reactions would be and as its been a nice weekend, there was quite a large crowd of people around.
Summer walked across the carpark, out through the cutting and went "ooh look at all the people" and proceed to pig root along the beach. What a lovely horse I heard someone say *snort*!

Meanwhile the new horse was walking off like she goes to the beach with crowds of people every day.
Summer proceeded to do her absolute best to wind up the other horse who took no notice of her at all.
Even when Summer backed into her to avoid getting attacked by the bit of white froth on the water, the mare just ignored her.
She walked straight into the water as well. Tripped over a rock in a deep pool but she really is a treasure.
A real credit to whoever started her under saddle, whoever that is.

So it looks like we fluked a really nice horse. Now just to get some weight on her.

First reports about Chief are promising. He was ridden about an hour after I left him and did everything as he should. Although he did pigroot a couple of times when asked to canter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the horse who's only been ridden around a small yard by a nervous woman and the kid already has him cantering on his first ride. Oh to have that kind of confidence.

Today he was going to be lead from Owhango to Kakahi as he was delivering a horse back to it's owners. Then the gear was going on Chief and he was riding him home. This is perfect and I couldn't ask for better.

1 comment:

sally said...

How fantastic to hear that your new horse is turning out to be a real treasure. I had to laugh at your recount of summer doing her best to wind up Grace!!!!. Good for you sticking with her. Your rides sound great.....and nice to hear Chief is behaving