[a novel about] Andie + me, Endurance Riding, and Ponying!

[ihorse]

Hi guys! How's everyone doing? :)
ETA: More cuts. :'( Sorry this is so huge!

Comments

[ihorse]

Thank you! It's nice to know that I can officially separate myself from the poor sports and ignorant nuts. ;) In general, I've always had pretty good control of her, except when she's being all herd bound and scary without a buddy. I'm hoping I'll eventually be able to either wean her off from 'needing' a buddy, or find someone I can regularly ride with. As long as she's fairly comfortable, and I'm confident, she'll pretty much do anything. Her steering is good, she bends pretty well, I can do a sort of half pass, and she's a talented jumper, so I think she's going to be pretty cut out for trail work. She's super smart (used to come up with all kinds of freaky ways to try to time her bucks just right to get me off... COUGH like after a fence COUGH), and knows where to put her feet in tricky spots, so with a little more work and conditioning, I think she'll be fantastic, and have much more fun with endurance than me fighting with her to get her head under control and try to force a better trot out of her.

Really her only issue is that she still thinks it's fun to throw in a few bucks when we start canter work, and her canter tends to be really speedy and crazy. With work I think she'll develop those muscles so she can carry herself better, though, and actually collect herself instead of just spazzing out and giving up by charging around with her head up. XD

Thanks a bunch for your advice (and the link to AERC, that's super handy!). I can totally agree that there really isn't anything that makes me happier than a beautiful day on the trails with a well-behaved, HAPPY, and HEALTHY horse. I'm really excited!

[dappled_dreams]

You're very welcome - as the owner of a very stubborn and barn sour/herd sour app, I totally commiserate with you. My journal is pretty boring now, but it is one of my goals to frill it up a little and record my rides in it - mind if I add you?

[ihorse]

Sure! I was actually going to ask the same question, but forgot. XD I don't really have anything in my journal right now, but I'll probably start updating it once Andie and I start working. :)