What a day!!!!

Today was a wonderful day!!! I played with and rode both Prince and Twosox. Prince in the morning and Twosox in the afternoon. The sun was peaking through the clouds on and off through out the morning but by lunch time it was shining bright and clear. It was so nice!!!

About 5 minutes after I got outside the horses left..... so I filled the water trough, played with my little brothers, waited.... and finally my mom was finished cleaning the corral with my sister so we could go [it was my day off from that duty ;)]

The horses were in the turn around when we got there. After we caught Prince and Knightly we decided to go to the field and play for a bit before heading home. Before we left the turn around I noticed Prince was being a little dominate so we did some driving game, sideways and circles. I "put" a huge hill in Prince's way so that he really had to think about where he was going. It took him a while but finally he started playing attention to where he feet were and he stopped tripping. Then we played Stick to me to the field. We did trotting departures, back up, and sideways!!! It was really cool!!!

After that I sent Prince sideways while I kept my feet still over to a big rock that is in the field. He did really well!!! He had a big rest there then we played with our Stick to me at the canter. It was a little slippery in the field but we managed. Prince did really, really well!!!! After a couple minutes he would start cantering when I started cantering in my body!!! After that was going well we played around with cantering then slowing down tot a stop, then cantering again. Prince caught on really quickly!! It isn't perfect yet but it is getting there!! Then we went over to a big dip in the field [we have a VERY interesting field... rock, tree, dips, raspberry bushes etc etc ;)] I went Prince down it and then up it again but he wanted to trot through it so I ask really really softly for a walk and he walked all the way down and then back up again! He is so smart!!! Then I switched positions and asked Prince to back down it and up the other side. Prince and I have been having some problems with backing up straight but this time Prince backed up perfectly straight, even when he was going up the other side he was straight!!! Prince had a rest on the other side then I asked him to come trotting to me. I backed up a couple steps and Prince came trotting right to me!!!

I then put the 45ft line on Prince and we went to the middle of the field [or as close to it as we could get!] and we did circles...... well at first they were a rather odd shaped circle..... more of an oval.... not they weren't even that!! Oh dear....... Prince has never been at the end of the 45ft line when it was circling so he was a little confused but we played around with it and he got it. He was circling at about 40ft by the end and this time it was a circle!!!! He had to watch out for rocks, hills, big hills, shrubs and lots more too!!!! Talk about the 4 responsibilities!!!! Once Prince gave me one true circle with out me making any corrections we stopped.

I was ready to go back home so while my mom finished up Prince and I went over to a little hill in the field and I set Prince up onto it. Then I crawled under him. Stopping right under him to play some friendly of course ;)

I decided to ride Prince home. So once we were ready I climbed up. Prince is SO comfy bareback!!!!! He did really well the whole ride home. There were a couple close calls with low hanging trees but other then that it was great!! Man those tree are wet!!!! That is the problem when you have short horses that only make the paths a certain height!!!! hehe it was a lot of fun though. Prince and I went in the lead, my mom and Knightly followed and Ruffy and Twosox  took the rear. Prince was really in tune with me and did everything I asked!!! Once we got to the turn around I asked Prince to trot. It was really comfy!!!! I am going to be doing a lot of bareback riding this winter!!! Unless it doesn't snow a lot then I might dig my saddle out!! :) 

When we were coming up to the short but steep hill that is on the other side of the turn around I grabbed a whole of Prince's mane and we walked right up it. It was SO amazing to feel Prince under me pushing himself and me up the hill!!! It was an amazing feeling!!!! The nice thing about bareback is that you can feel everything!! Going down the hill was interesting also. I was totally confident going down it. It isn't a steep but it is longer so it is more drawn out. For 90% of the ride home I only had one hand on the rein. Before when I have ridden home [or out on the trails] I have made my reins shorter so I could control Prince a little bit more [i.e. Bend him if he got a little to impulsive! ;)] So it was really nice to be able to trust Prince and trust myself!!!

Another bonus about riding Prince home was that I didn't have to walk through mud!!!! hehe it was so nice!!! My jeans still got dirty but not as bad ;) I couldn't believe how comfortable Prince was!!!! It was wonderful!!!!

I will type Twosox's playtime tomorrow!!! It is getting late!!
~K