Our trail to happiness !

Our trail to happiness !

Monday, July 22, 2013

Away Ride!! July 21st 2013

 
      The night  before the AWAY ride, I can't sleep! I'm so excited and nervous !!

   The morning comes and I start to get ready. I can't even eat breakfast I'm too nervous! It's not long and Kaaren arrives with her trailer! Surprisingly enough Kizz loads fairly well! I was pretty surprised since he hadn't been trailered since coming home from when he was boarded at Dena's to get started to saddle.

We get on our way! Once we turn into the driveway at Greenfield Stables, my belly starts to churn! I'm so nervous he is going to get off the trailer and whinny and spin around and not pay ANY attention to me! We unload the horses and walk them around the farm a bit. We take them into the barn and into the indoor to check everything out. Other than him walking pretty fast he was very respectful and not as nervous as I expected!

We lead the horses back and I tie Kizz to the side of the trailer. He gets busy looking around at the cows and horses. Kaaren takes Odin off to get his hock and leg hosed off as he kicked at the trailer partition (when he was trailered from his house to mine) His hair on his leg was rubbed off some.

As Kaaren and Odin walked off, Kizz started to Whinny some, but they stayed in our sight and he wasn't too bad. I got him brushed off and saddled up fairly well. But time Kaaren and Odin got back and saddled up, Kizz wasn't too bad! not screaming or spinning like I expected!

We lead the horses into the riding ring and I use the mounting block to mount. A friend of mine - our guide to the trails for the day, Carole is all mounted and waiting on a cute little half Arab mare.

We head out and are on our way!! Kizz is wanting to be close to his buddy so I let him go up in behind Odin and the new mare and Carole come in behind us. He keeps putting his ears back and turning his head a bit to see her, but walks along fine! We get through the fields and come to the trails! The trails are great and there is lots to experience.  There are some small puddles and mud holes that we hug the trees as much as possible and go around. There is a very steep incline that he does well on!

As the ride goes on, he is very good! He doesn't spook at anything, or refuse anything. The only thing he does is avoids the mud and such as much as he can. I can tell at this point he starts to get a little nervous and sticks as close to Odin as he can. We get out onto some fields and he settles in better! We cross our first beaver pond! it's not deep but far across and not clear but muddy but he goes in without much fuss and crosses fine!! After some more trails we cross back across again. This time he walks right in and crosses with no hesitation at all. With us at the rear he is much more grumpy. He is worried they are going to go on ahead of us ... Coming out of the stream they pick up a trot and we do as well, they get a bit ahead of us, and he hops and bucks a bit. we get him stopped up and then on we go again and he is fine after that. He doesn't seem to like to be in the lead or in the rear, but in the middle.

At one point we stop in a field (where he pees basically on command lol) and as they're munching a bit, the little mare walks a few paces away from us towards the trail.. He backs up and squats a few times like he is going to rear . I yell at him and he stops. (We aren't sure why he did it at the time but after we realize it is because the little mare was leaving us)

Farther along on the trail, Kizz seems to settle in even better and even trots and takes the lead up ahead! We lope a little bit and he does well.

                  A picture of Kaaren & Odin on the right, and Kizz & I to the left, on the trail that Carole took :)




On the way back we trot on a head but see we've left Carole and the little grey Arab mare behind. We go back and she is walking (to give her knee a break) we stop and let the horses eat. I mention to Karen that I think Kizz acted up back on the trail because the mare was walking away... she suggests we wait and let them walk on ahead and see how he does.

As soon as they get out ahead of us, he stops eating and I can tell it's upsetting him that she's going on with out us. He even whinnys a bit. We give it a while, then return to the trail and head off. We trot a bit and going up a little knoll I let him pick up the canter. He bucks a few times, so I pull him up and give a shout. So we return back to the woods where the field started and walk back. He again takes off a bit trotting so we stop turn and trot back to the woods and return at a walk again. This time he walks fine and although we can both tell he's excited to go , he doesn't speed up. We arrive at the stables and decide to ride in the ring a while!

It's a huge beautiful ring with beautiful footing. It's been so long since we had anywhere nice like this to ride. I ask Kizz to trot around and we do some figure 8s. He does well. Kaaren canters around a bit and then we dismount and chat with Carole some. Kaaren asks if I cantered. I say, No. I'm nervous to ask for a canter in that big of an area! on the narrow little trails with no where for him to run off to I'm much more comfortable!

She says we are here and it's at the end of the ride, we should do it. I know she's right. but of course it takes some encouragement for me to do it haha She says, just choose one lead even! just his good lead, so I give in.

I mount up again and we trot some circles, I choose his good lead.. I kiss and ask for it and he picks it up after only 2 tries. We canter at least a good full circle. She says are you going to do the other direction ?

I feel much better about it and say, YUP!

The other lead takes a few more tries, and at one point he picks up the wrong lead but is jumping in the air with his front end to switch leads and I pull him up. So I ruin that try! but after a couple more tries we get it!!

both leads done! yahooo!! Thanks again to Kaaren we end our ride on a perfect note!

we unsaddle the horses and let them roam around the arena and roll and relax while we chat.

After we return to the trailer and wait for Kaaren as she hoses off and wraps Odin's leg, Kizz is almost sleeping beside me he is so relaxed!! I'm so excited and happy !!

I can't believe we did it!! I'm still on Cloud 9.

Next hurdle to cross is me riding out by myself and meeting Kaaren on the trail!! I'm so nervous that he's going to be upset riding out alone and dump me. He's very dependant on the other horse , but I know we need to get past this and be a team just the two of us!  It would be much nicer for Kaaren to ride out and meet us on the trail to ride together rather than riding up the big hill alone and coming to ride with me!

I get belly bubbles just thinking of it!! but I know it's coming and need to get over it!!
Also our ACTRA Judged Pleasure ride is coming up soon and that's awesome!!

wish us luck we survive the ALONE ride and I'll never complain about being nervous.... no I can't promise that.. lol!











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