10.31.07
Video of me riding green Glendale!
AT LAST!! Though he’s been back home over 2 weeks, and I rode him at Joanne’s on trail maybe 6 times and 4-5 times since back at home, no one has taken videos of me riding him out until last Friday. We took HorseGal out as a threesome (our 3 horses) and she kindly took a couple of movies.
HorseGal was riding momma Willy mare (it’s a mutual love thing BTW,) and Hubby is on big brother Gilford. Yeah, it’s not exciting, but that is a GOOD thing with a youngster in training. We’re just walking along a railroad bed in Franklin which had such coarse large stone on it we didn’t dare trot or anything… we didn’t realize until we got there that it was so un-horse-friendly!
Here comes Glen with me (orange vest) and Gilford carrying Hubby, walking towards HorseGal who is on Willy momma mare…
This was Glen’s first outing with the big guys since he has started under saddle. We trailered out, tied them all to the trailer for tacking up (which was alongside a 2 lane major thoroughfare) without a twitch, and off we went. Going out, momma mare and HorseGal led the way mostly; on our return trip I took Glendale in front, including crossing 4 bridges, one of which was wooden plank. Glen was hesitant but went on across with a little reassurance; he is reminding me a lot of his mom, who is a wonderful trail horse! We also rode under a highway overpass, past a power substation, and through a neighborhood junkyard lot, and none of it fazed him.
Approaching one of the bridges on the railroad bed over a culvert and stream… on return trip I took Glendale in the lead over all four bridges!
Wil and Gilford had their hoof boots on in front, but Glen doesn’t have any boots so we went slowly and carefully on that coarse stone. We did find one logging road to follow a while, and did some trotting on that but it was pretty rocky too. Glendale was quite relaxed, he did everything I asked except walk through puddles. (Well, I was sort of pushing the envelope on that one.) Walking on the straights I did got him to start understanding yielding his forequarters to my leg cues plus rein; he’s already pretty good at yielding his haunches.
