To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Horton had to heed

He hesitated. He hemmed and hawed. I had to get hard-nosed.

He got hot post-haste, and had to hang out for awhile to cool off afterwards.

We'll see how well he heeds next time....

Besides a rather challenging ride on Horton yesterday, I also handled a hot young horse-kite.

Lance has been cooped up for more than six weeks now, and isn't getting hand-walked as often as would be ideal because of his previous owner's work schedule. Yesterday I drove to Lincoln City to deliver more Horse Guard and get him out of his stall.

Lance looked so sweet, hanging out with his little buddy. But once I lead him out of his stall, he was all sass – the stud chain our saving grace. For the first 15-20 minutes, he jigged and bucked and reared, explosive with pent-up energy. Thankfully, he minded his manners and never directed any of that energy towards me, but I am worried that his more timid former owner may stop hand-walking him altogether because of it. How I wish he were close enough for me to walk him every day....

3 comments:

A :-) said...

Is he coming home to you soon? Hope so :-)

Theresa said...

Heeding is good and I think every horse needs to have that discussion at various times. As to Lance, poor boy, I can't think of anything tougher on a young horse than being pent up esp. when the weather turn brisk and frosty. Even my old guys show a little P&V on those crisp days.

Michelle said...

Not until the end of December, Adrienne.