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| O HAI |
Freddie came off the track in April after eating some hay that contained blister beetles. She's fine now, and trying to adjust to life as a sport horse instead of a race horse. She lives at the barn Moe and Gina are moving to in a couple of weeks.
Richal offered to let me ride Freddie; Richal has a lot of horses in training as well as a lot of students, so she doesn't have tons of extra time. Freddie is fairly low on her list of priorities- she'd really like to sell the horse. So my current job is to help retrain Freddie for a productive, off the track career and get her sold when she's ready.
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| The cutest. |
Freddie is physically very similar to Moe- relatively short (around 15.1 hands), narrow, and kind of...delicate. Well, delicate looking. She has slender legs, a short back, a dainty face. Both Freddie and Moe have a lot of Turn-To in their pedigrees, which I suppose accounts for the similarities.
Progress with Freddie has been a little slow- she was barefoot when I first encountered her a couple of months ago and seemed fine, but kept going gimpy. So she was shod on the front, which was a dramatic improvement...except she kept pulling her shoes. But when Freddie's feet feel good, Freddie is good!
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| Practicing standing around. |
She stands quietly for mounting and her walk and trot are smooth and forward. She tries to zoom around a little bit, but settles down once she realizes her rider isn't asking her to go. She halts pretty well and stands around like a champ. Last week, I trotted her over a few low crossrails, and she very bravely conquered them. Freddie still needs some work on cantering; she currently zooms around at a slow gallop and lets out a few exuberant bucks now and then. But she's a smart horse and I know she'll keep making progress.
I am so, so happy to be at a barn with lots of other horse people, lots of horses who need to be ridden, and good friends. I love Moe and Gina, and I love riding them and working toward goals I've set. But I also love the challenge of riding new and different horses and teaching them new skills.
What about y'all? Do you prefer to stick with horses you know and love and perfect your partnership? Or do you like to ride something different every day? Some of both?
12 comments:
I love having the opportunity to get on other horses because it keeps things interesting. But at the end of the day I'm awfully happy to go back "home" to my good little girl!
I also love the opportunity to get out and work/ride other horses. It teaches me so much. Although so far I've always dismounted afterwards with the realization that I have a lovely horse in my own backyard. It particularly makes me realize that all the work I have put into Lady is really paying off and she actually is extremely well behaved and good compared to... well... some other horses out there :D
I can never have enough horses to ride! Ride ALL the horses (fist pump)!
She's very cute!
I do love getting back on Moe- he definitely has that "home" feeling!
It IS a great teaching experience, riding other horses! Things you can get away with on your horse don't always work with a different animal!
YEAH FIST PUMP YEAH HORSES!
She is super cute, not at all like some of the big warmblood-looking TBs out there! I'm kind of partial to the little runty ones.
When I was in Ireland i loved getting on ALL the horses, but my confidence took a massive knock when I moved to Lux as it's a lot less of a "have at'em" attitude. So for now I am happy to only mess up my horses, but if anyone were to ask me to ride their horses I'd happily have a spin - but that is unlikely to happen as I'm pretty sure they all think me a crap rider. Suits me fine really then I don't have to worry about anyone but myself ;-)
Cute! I gained a bay Thoroughbred this week too!
As a more newbie rider, I am just getting to the point where I feel comfortable riding different horses and look forward to the new experiences and learnings. Up until now, I have been a big scaredy cat preferring to stick with what I know, even it it was holding me back a bit.
Although I get more emotionally invested in my own horse, I love the chance to hop on something new when I can! I think it makes you work more, and adjust to new things. :) She's a little cutie!
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