Our first trail ride!

Hershey and I went on our first trail ride together today! It was fun! He got a little bit excited though, but we still had a great time. He was, well, hyper I could say today so he was not the best, but he was pretty good. When we went on the ride every new thing was exciting, so he had his head  high, his tail up, and his ears perked forward! About every 10 steps I had to make him do things like, backing, one rein stop, side passes, and 4 corners because his adrenaline was up so high that he didn't think, so all of those exercises were to help his brain to get back on track and realize that the all those exciting things he saw really were not that exciting! That trail ride probably was the most exciting thing that Hershey had done in awhile, I had fun, and I bet he had fun to!!:)

FUN!!!!!!!!!!

I had fun today! I practiced sensitizing and desensitizing, and I cantered barrels!!! It was so much fun and I don't think I have had that much fun in forever! Soon I bet Hershey and I will be galloping across the pasture and soaring like birds..... Oh how fun that would be! I found out the difference between a lope and a canter today, which I thought were the same actually were not, a lope is slower than a canter, and today I cantered! I even went over a little jump on him too! It was fun, I think Hershey was getting a little tired during our lesson, and when I dismounted for a minute and then went to get back on, he was asleep! LoL!!! I was so excited because my trainer told me that I could go as fast as I felt safe to go around the barrels!!!! I was so excited that when I did the barrels I tried to go really fast, but Hershey was so tired that he wouldn't go any faster than a fast canter, but I still had SO MUCH FUN!!!

Meet Milly's kittens!

Guess what! I finally posted on Hershey! I can't believe I did it, it was so fun.( Just so you know, posting is when you rise up and down with the horses rhythm as it's trotting.) I also practiced having Hershey bend his neck down and under himself which is called collecting , I did it with one rein. We had fun today, at first Hershey was kind of lazy, but after we did some ground work and desensitizing, he perked right up! I was thinking, even though this blog is usually just for writing about my horse and what we do together, I thought that maybe every once and awhile I could write about other things that happen that are interesting. So I decided that I would write about my cat Milly's kittens! Here's a pic of all of them, even though this one isn't very good, it's the best pic I could get, the kittens just wouldn't hold still for their photo shoot!

Here is a picture of squeak squeaking! ( Well, actually he isn't squeaking but it sure sounds like he is!)

Practice Practice Practice!

Hi!! Today I went to work with Hershey, and we were practiced some things he needs to work on, and some things I need to work on too!! I lunged him around and I worked on not letting him pull on the rope when he canters. What I did was as soon as he would canter and start to pull, I would backup and ask him to come in. Hershey was being kind of lazy today, so when I asked him to canter and then come in a, after awhile, he would lay back his ears. It wasn't the kind of ears back were he is saying,'' arggh, I'm mad at you, get out of my way''. It was the kind of ears back were he was saying, '' oh my gosh, I have to do this again''? I think he got a little bit bored of that exercise, lol!! So what we did after that was when I got on him, I practiced the walk, trot, and canter. And part of the time I had to ride with out stirrups! I just don't like riding without stirrups for some reason, but my instructor said that I need to ride without stirrups more than I do now so I don't feel any difference riding with them and without. That is what ''I'' had to work on today as well, I also worked on keeping my heels down, which is sometimes very hard, especially without stirrups! All together I think Hershey and I did ok today, but we are improving all the time!