resting after a ride
Talk about beautiful. And what a nice ride! Jazzy, now called Jazz, (because Jazz music is relaxing to me) came to me to become a super duper trail horse and she is it, baby! I have ridden almost every day since she came to me. The owners have not been able to afford the time, due to demands of work, to ride her daily and get her in shape for trail riding. So they brought her to me. She had a few quirks they wanted worked out, like not spooking and throwing a temper tantrum. Piece o’ cake! After all she is only four. They werent quite sure they wanted to keep her as they haven’t the time to ride through the week and they have children that will eventually be riding her. Her previous trainers had done a very good job with her in de-spooking her, teaching her the basics of riding, etc. She just needed experience. The first time I took her out she was a bit of a handful, but she did well.
You see, we have this wooded trail that has a creek and we have a small lake, large pond depending on how you look at it that borders our property. There is also plenty of fields to ride around and a neighborhood where we can ride. Lots and lots of pleasant distractions for any horse. We have deer, dogs, kids playing, cars whizzing by, lawn mowers and most anything you can think of is there. Did Jazz mind any of this? Of course she did. Are you kidding? She nearly jumped right out of her skin! But what a ride! OMG! This horse has the best little rack I have been on. After jumping at everything in sight she racked as fast as she could all the way home. Oh wait! Before we went on the trail, I had to coax her down the drive way. Anyhow, after several rides on the trail and down the driveway she did fine.
Since then, she has been on short trips. But due to weather, rain, wind, ect. we rode in the riding arena several days instead of on the trail. Today we went back to the trail. First thing we saw were six deer running through the pasture jumping over the fence and scooting away. Did Jazzy spook at this? Actually not. She stopped and looked, smelled and just stood there. Good for her! So we walked on into the wooded trail and did fine until we rounded the corner and she smelled where the deer went through. Oh boy, I thought, here we go! But she just “jazzed” up a bit and walked on. We continued on into the deeper part of the woods in the direction of the deer and the neighbors farm and then she decided to act like her world was coming to an end. But MAN what a ride! I loved it. She racked and tried to canter, hopped over logs, bucked out a litte and zoomed up the hill, but stayed on the trail and conceded to having a rider on her back. The only time I felt I had to get off was when we were going through a narrow opening in the trail and Jazzy got a whiff of the seventh deer that shot out behind us. I thought she was going to loose her dinner!!! I decided I needed a break and hopped off. Then we just stood there.
After that the trail was fine, until…… Those dreaded rocks and flowerbeds my neighbor has. They must have looked like monsters to Jazz. She did not want to go forward. Afterall, her buddies were behind us, why did she have to be the brave one? So, I guess I lied. I got off again. (Better safe than sorry) And I hand walked her, back and forth, (how boring) until she felt safer. At this point, my neighbor had brought out her trash can and my husband drove by with his truck and stock trailer on his way to run dogs in training for a field trial. Jazz went to meet each ’spooky’ obstacle with anxiety, but I am very proud of her. She did quite well and learned that nothing was going to eat her. I remounted and we went up and down the road looking at everything with renewed assurance that it wasn’t going to gobble us up. We also went back to the wooded trail two more times where the deer were and decided there was nothing there to worry about either. By the time we got back to the barn we were all relaxed and chilled out.
Personally, I can’t wait til tomorrow to ride again. Why? Because this mare has one heck of a nice gait and is a pleasure to ride, especially when she canters. And OH BOY, can she flat out run. But that is another story.