first outdoor ride

We arrived at Iron Horse to find our horses outside happily grazing together. Patty was working a horse in the outdoor arena, and her staff was playing musical stalls with the horses and power washing. Patty’s funny bunny was hopping around outside enjoying the weather, which apparently it does all day long, never leaving the area.

She helped us get the boys ready, the new pad we got at horse fair did the trick and now my saddle works well on Koda! Not as well for me, need to do some work with the stirrups again. My saddle has been sitting for longer than I care to think about.

I started by lunging Koda outside. We were doing good but he kept braking his stride to the left again, so Patty briefly took over demonstrating a shorter line and therefore more control. It worked for me too. I’ll just keep him on a shorter line, and let him ease out as long as he is listening.

We had three (four for a short while) happy horses and riders enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather. Nemo and Koda were well behaved. I did get one slack response when I asked Koda to re-start trotting. Patty reminded me to change/increase how I ask if I don’t get the answer after a couple times. It’s especially important to not keep repeating the same request the same way and not get the right answer, when they are young and in training. Makes sense, and worked right away. Koda’s a dream to ride, I think we are a good match and I couldn’t be happier with my boy!

Brad and Nemo also had a good ride, and are equally as well matched. Nemo was a bit of a fuss-budget at the end of our ride, while we were talking and when dismounting. They were feeding inside, and he wanted to be done. Patty had Brad get back on Nemo so he could stand correctly while he dismounted, and he did. I have to say, what the boys are doing “wrong” is minor and the correction comes right away – a sign of good training. I’m glad they are picky at Iron Horse about their listening & ground manners, as we all know that's where it starts.

We chose to forgo our upcoming Saturday ride, to further their training. Patty & staff are planning a 3-ish hour long trail ride down the road and onto a trial, and our boys are ready for more training. I would love to watch, but it’s probably better if I don’t have that picture in my head lol. We’ll get our owner training on the trail, after they do the initial ride. Altho we would love nothing more than to ride again this week, they are ready to progress in their training – after all, that is what we are paying for. It’s very important they get solid trail training for our current scenario at home, as they’ll be ridden outside in unrestricted areas a lot.