18 March 2011

My ride with Cruizer on Wednesday went pretty well. We raised his bit a hole up on the bridle just to see if adjusting it would make his old habit of mouthing the bit would go away. He used to do this constantly, but as he matured and relaxed hestopped doing it. Lately he's picked it up again, and nothing has changed so I'm not sure why. He's also been trying to pull the reins out of my hands at the canter, no matter how much rein he has. I asked the BO for her opinion and she thought the bit looked a little low in his mouth. After raising it he did relax quite a bit and stopped mouthing so much. Honestly I can't remember the specifics of the ride, other than that I only rode one direction, and then Cruizer went on his first hack/walk outside the arena for the year! The weather was gorgeous, about 60 degrees, but unfortunately we couldn't ride in the grass or the fields out front because its still very wet and we were sinking. Instead, Kelsey and Rolie joined us and we took a walk down the driveway. On the way down Cruizer was pretty excited, looking around a lot with his head up in the air, and was pretty tense..which was to be expected. & Actually, Rolie is probably the most broke horse I've ever known, he cares about literally nothing (except pigs), and even he was prancing at the arena gate waiting to get out, and was generally being much more hyper than normal (he's a 14 year old Paint gelding), and even bucked once which I have never seen him do with a rider in the 9+ years I've known him. Rolie's behavior made me not feel so let down in Cruizer's. Walking down the driveway Cruizer remained pretty high headed, but was very confident in himself and marched out ahead of Rolie right away. Also, one major motive for riding down the driveway is that it is gravel with quite a few larger rocks, and I was curious to see how Cruizer's feet would hold up. I have to say, he felt no different than if he was back in the super soft, fluffy arena footing. He was perfectly sound and never took a bad step even though he insisted in stepping on every big rock and pothole he could find. When we got to the end of the driveway Rolie tripped and Cruizer sat back to run away, thinking Rolie spooked. I just said whoa and sat down a little and Cruizer stopped and just sighed. He's growing up!

Cruizer really seemed to enjoy heading out even if it only was ten minutes. I plan to get him out of the arena as much as possible this summer. There is talk of doing an over night trail ride with all the youth riders this summer.. IM SO EXCITED. Obviously we will have to take Cruizer on just a day trail ride first...I don't want to die. However, I think he will be just fine, honestly.


Yesterday our ride was a pretty even mix of really bad and really good. I tried to get on without lunging (since I did that the day before), but he just wasn't having it. I had to get off and lunge. He was really hyper, but eventually settled. His trot work under saddle was AWESOME. Left lead canter was horrible, and then the right lead was really good & really bad. He was mouthing the bit a lot going to the left, but he did get better eventually. Going to the right, everyone else had left the arena, so cantering was interesting. Every time we got down by C he would "hear something," and rocket forward and then slow down again. I still have no idea what that was about. Eventually he stopped doing it. Then, right as I was about to be done, he saw the cat run past outside and FLIPPED. He sat down on his hindquarters and bolted sideways. I ended up hovering over his neck but stayed on and we kept going. Overall, I really can't complain too much though about his behavior. He got most of the winter off, and I have just started riding him consistently again, anddd we had spring weather hit hard this week, so he was feeling good.

The best news of all is that after our ride yesterday we did showmanship, and he nailed all of his pull turns, plus a pivot that was the equivalent of two 360s and a 90 in one. Yay Cruizer. I would say his pull turns are pretty much 90% there now.

1 comment:

  1. Ah, the joys of a young, exuberant horse. Cruizer is being a challenge, but it sounds as if you are up to it. I suspect as the season goes on and he gets some more work he'll settle down. What a silly boy.

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