Montag Morgen auf dem Reitplatz

Mit meinen Eltern und Jons Mutter bin ich an einem herrlichen Februarmorgen zum Stall gefahren, damit sie Brownie auch mal kennen lernt. Ich wollte sowieso reiten und mein Vater hat freundlicherweise mal wieder Brownies Paddock sauber gemacht, waehrend die Muetter mir beim Reiten zugeschaut und sich trotz aller Sprachbarrieren doch ganz gut unterhalten haben.
Ich gewoehne mich langsam besser ans Westernreiten und das Abbiegen und Anhalten ohne Zuegel faengt auch langsam an Fruechte zu tragen.
Um nicht alle so lange warten zu lassen und weil ich noch mit Jon schwimmen gehen wollte bin ich nur eine halbe Stunde geritten, mein Vater dann noch eine Runde und wir waren schon vor 11 wieder zu Hause.
Hat Spass gemacht!

See more progress on: ride my horse at least 3 times a week

Hospice Trail Ride

Stephanie and I went to the Hospice Trail Ride in Ocala today.
There were a least 200 horses (just our estimate) there, divided into large groups. The 1.5 hour ride went surprisingly calm and disciplined. Everybody really seemed to know what they were doing and the horses were well behaved. We rode through the beautiful Ocala State Forest with nice sandy horse trails.
Later there was also a demonstration by Lynn Palm, a famous horseback rider, barbeque lunch and a western band.
Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for Lynn Palm’s clinic, but it still was a nice day and a fun ride.
Even though it’s nice to live on the coast, it’s sometimes just nice to get a break from all these palm trees…

See more progress on: ride my horse at least 3 times a week

This week

I’ve been riding twice already. Both times were under an hour, but I did practice my skills, on Tuesday in the arena and today in the jungle right behind our pasture. It’s hard to change habits on how I’ve been riding for years without even thinking about it, but I think I’m on the right track now.
On Saturday Stephanie and I are going to a trail ride in Ocala. That should be fun!

See more progress on: ride my horse at least 3 times a week

Lakeland Barrel Race

Trail Ride

It was hot today, around 81 at 2pm, so Brownie wasn’t too excited about going on a ride. I took it kind of slow, only one longer lope on the grassy part of James Road.
Later it seemed like he was lame, but didn’t really slowed down on the way back. I had him walk and it seemed to go away.
I have to watch this and also told Stephanie about it.
When I came back from the ride I noticed I had left the door to the feed room open and Stephanie’s horses were enjoying a bale of hay and had gone into the big bucket of grain. Fortunately they didn’t cause too much damage and chaos, maybe because Brownie wasn’t amongst them…

See more progress on: ride my horse at least 3 times a week

Fencing

I didn’t ride the horse today, but took my whole family to help me clean his pen and build the electric fence that’s supposed to keep in inside the pasture and prevent him from breaking the wooden fence surrounding it.
We didn’t quite have enough posts and nothing for the gate, but got everything done that we could with what we had.
I’ll just have to buy some more supplies before my little chaos pony can go back out again.

See more progress on: ride my horse at least 3 times a week

Tosohatchee State Preserve

I didn’t ride Brownie all week because we were in New Orleans, but before I even got back home Stephanie called and asked if I was up for a trail ride in Christmas on Saturday.
Of course I was!
So we met in the morning, loaded up three horses – Pattie for Stephanie, Roy for Bailey and Brownie for me – and went to a park with miles and mile of nice grassy and sandy trails.
We rode through a huge variety of landscapes: jungle, swamp, pine forest, and flatwood prairie just to name the most common.
And even though we let the horses run real fast once and had to ride through mud and water, I didn’t lose a single easy boot.
After the ride the horses got to eat some grass before we went back home.
It was a fun ride and so nice to be carried and being out in the jungle instead of all the walking in New Orleans (that was a lot of fun also, but very different).

See more progress on: ride my horse at least 3 times a week