Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I don't have a photo for today, so I thought I'd share this one that I stole from my sister.  She took it on our evening ride when we were out camping.  I love it. 

But what I really came her to tell you is that we loped!  It was ugly, it wasn't quite right, we had to break it down 3 times and still it wasn't quite right, but we did it!  To be honest, Tonka was ready to do it long before I was.  We've had too many wrecks and I have never had a sound horse to lope on, so I have a lot of anxiety about it.  You can't lie to your horse though, and he knew what was up.  He was offering and I was chickening out and he was getting a little irritated with me. But now that we did it and he didn't fall down and I didn't fall off, I think the next rides will get better and better.  He wasn't the least bit stumbly today so I think he's doing pretty well in terms of his EPSM and  his general fitness level.  I have high hopes that we'll have some awesome rides this year, and do some growing in our abilities too.  Happy day!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good - congratulations to you both!

Ranch Girl Diaries said...

What is it about loping? Until last summer I had issues with loping. My Boy has never bucked while we are loping, yet I've always been a bit fearful of it. Maybe it's because I'm not a 12 year old bombing around on my ponies anymore, LOL! I'm glad you had a good lope! It helps build the confidence!!

froglander said...

I was nervous to canter on Cody for the longest time too (still am in open spaces, but slowly getting better). He never had, but for some reason I was afraid he would take off on me. We just built it up slowly and now it is fun to canter laps in the arena :)

Lea and her Mustangs said...

We missed you this evening.