A lovely ride...

Went for a ride on Maya on Saturday with my sister and her horse who got her name during that ride, "Kona".

We played on the ground first, saddled well - no fussing or moving around - and I walked and drove her from zone 3 up the road towards the black gate where we were to ride from. On the way I met Connie coming back because her horse wasn't ready to go trail riding and kept trying to back up all the way home.

Maya had one case of the druthers just around the first big bend in the road, but I retreated some, then kept her feet busy and she soon settled into following Kona (who had yet to be named).

We rode to Malina road through some new road construction and on the way found a large clear puddle that we stopped to give the horses a drink out of. It was very sandy around the puddle and when I turned Maya to head off, she thought she might just have a little roll and lay down with me on her. She couldn't roll over with my leg holding her up, I gave her a squeeze and she got up and we continued on, though she was still looking a bit like she wanted to roll, so I asked her to trot to change her mind. It was very cute. I think she'll probably be easy to teach to lie down to let me mount, if I can just stop her from rolling right away before I can get on!

We stopped at a house to visit some folks and pick up some money for a saddle that Carla had sold them - their kids were cool. Their youngest daughter really took a shine to Maya and even sat on her - she hadn't been on a horse since she was really little, too little to remember. Maya was a trooper but did scare the girl a bit when she gave a good shake. That can feel so unsettling. I taught the girl how to play the yo-yo game and Maya and I played stick to me because she was feeling really connected to me. That part was great.

I do think that i need to prepare her a bit better with me in the saddle. On the ground I can ask her to do lots of things that I can't get from the saddle, so I am sure that it's time to play in the saddle more in the round pen and locally where she's comfortable and I'm comfortable, so we can learn new things like sideways. That could be very valuable when I don't want to be run into every bush & tree on the side of the trail.

Her feet held up well, though they are getting a bit long, she wasn't sore or ouchy at all like she was last year. My rocky paddock must help with that - that and not having just been trimmed after 3 years of practically no hoof care before I got her.

I haven't played with her much since then, just spent undemanding time and played a bit at liberty in the paddock. It's so cool how I mirror her and she mirrors me. She's getting to be very sweet towards me and isn't ignoring me much at all, anymore.

One more thing: I have a story in the Parelli E-news this week. -=) A while back they asked for submissions from Canada - so I sent one in, never thinking that they'd include it in its' entirety. I saved the pdf of the e-news this week cuz I thought it was cool. My two minutes of fame. ;-)

Nighty night.