Thursday's Ride!

Well I finally got to ride again. I haven't been able to ride since Monday for various reasons. Tuesday I was with my family and we went out for supper. Then last evening we had rain so no riding then either. But I rode today and I rode bareback for 40 minutes (got interrupted to help dad). Navajo and I headed down the strip. My uncle's big John Deere was right where we usually go down so we had to go around it. Navajo wasn't to sure about this at all =D He stopped and I asked him to go forward then stopped again. Then I told him to go forward again. He went. I got him to go up to the tractor and he sniffed it and we stood there for a bit so he could sniff it and deem it ok to go past. He did and so down the strip we headed. He was acting funny again. He likes to act as though he can hardly go away from home but believe me the minute we are headed home we are off like lightning =D Anyway we went the whole way down to the strip and we did a lot of trotting and some cantering. I am going to see if I can teach him to go from a walk to a canter instead of a trot to a canter. I have done it pretty much that we would go from a trot to a canter but I was reading that a horse can learn to expect that so I am going to teach him to go from a walk to a canter. Hehe sorry if that is confusing. He did well with that because we worked on that a bit today.

He also did well with stopping. Navajo is getting better with that. I am very pleased with him. We also did some backing up. He didn't want to do that but he did it for me.

We did some surpentines at a walk and then I was like for something different lets do it at a trot. We did and it was a bit of a challenge. I think we are going to do that more often =D We were down along the bottom of the strip for about 30 or so minutes then we headed back. I headed up behind the steer barn and we did some cantering back there. That was lots of fun. Cantering is so much fun. Then I got off and I got him to back up the hill a bit then we headed back to the barn. I groomed him and loved on him. It was not the most eventful ride ever but I think it was fun and profitable!

p.s. I am not sure why I am not able to achieve my hour goal but I am going to keep working at it =)