What a nice weekend for riding...let's hear about your weekend

[katarine]

Started off with Chippy's second dressage lesson. I found a lovely lady who will travel to me to instruct Chip and me. We had a lovely lesson, she was pleased with our progress. I got him a full cheek snaffle and Wintec bridle, a more stable get up on his face than an eggbutt just on a browband bridle. We've been studious about our ring work and good turns in the corners, asking him for more and more long and low to let him relax. He's good as gold. I can't wait to see how he looks and carries himself in a few month's time.

Sunday I rode the sale pony. He was lovely, better than I expected! Cute little gaited pony, just precious. Didn't take a wrong step. Mr Kat came out and saddled up, so off we went down the road. GADZOOKS it was hot but we had a nice ride and Beamer was happy for a bath when we got home. Nothing fazed him - dogs, traffic, nothing, he was super. He's going to make someone a nice pony.

Came home stripped and rinsed some hot horses and ponies, then literally jumped in the lake, man it was hot out. After the swim, in true redneck fashion I barebacked the 4 YO in a rope halter, wearing shorts (me, silly, not her) to bring her and the donkey back to the barn after letting them mow beside the lake LOL. She's just the best big baby, never had ponied off her before but she just takes things in stride :)

How was YOUR weekend? Anyone else get some nice riding in?

[analise]

A group of us went camping here in MD with the horses. (I don't have one, was borrowing one from the barn). Saturday saw us riding all through Patapsco State Park for several hours. I had several tack malfunctions. The first came when we were standing on a downhill slope with the trail in a bit of a gully and trees on either side and directly down in front of us were the train tracks and the train coming and my bridle fell off.

Uh, well, more to the point, one of the Chicago screws that held the bit to the bridle had apparently come loose and when Blue rubbed her head against her leg, it gave up the ghost and fell off. So I hopped off and held her with the reins around her neck as someone else got off her horse and came to save the day with a bit of baling twine (ghetto fabulous bridle, that's me!). Oh yeah, and as I was sliding off, I slid against the little saddlebag I had clipped to the front of the saddle and one of the straps broke and it fell so I had to jury-rig something to tie it back on. Luckily, Blue never moved a foot during all of this, despite the train (however, the pony in the back of the line up the hill had a bit of a spaz attack but nothing too huge). Later, as we were riding along, the person behind me goes, "hey, your saddlebag fell off" so apparently my jury-rigging wasn't all that great. This time we stuck it inside one of the big Western saddlebags someone else had and moved on.

Other than that, the ride was pretty uneventful and there was definitely quite a lot of pretty scenery.

Sunday, we didn't ride for quite so long but we did get to explore some trails nobody in our group had been on before and found some really neat stuff. We all agreed we liked the new trails better, aheh. We also saw a baby fox! And numerous deer. And the train again, much closer, but no spaz attacks this time. And no tack malfunctions! We even got to do a bit of cantering along a nice open, flat part of the trail which was pretty cool since a lot of the trail rides I've gone on with this group had us pretty much stick to walking because we would have people who could/would only do that.

[baylady7]

We went out for a nice 1 hour hack on Saturday (the breeze was heavenly) then went out with an older pony mare from the farm for 30 minutes on Sunday. No cantering as the ground is hard in most places but a little trotting.

Analise- where are you in MD? My guy is in Woodbine/Howard Cty

[analise]

baylady, I'm in Howard County too. A bit southwest of Columbia, but I'm up in Woodbine a lot (I volunteer and take lessons at Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue).

[CanterQueen]

Hubby and I went for a long ride in the Manassas Battlefield. The "big loop" is 10 miles. I took our newest addition - a 12 year old TWH gelding that hasn't been out on the trails much, and hubby took his younger Walker. They both did great!

[jazzrider]

Oh CanterQueen, I need to get out to the Battlefields. I miss them, and love the long loop (except crossing Rt. 29!).

On Friday morning I rode my TWH Luke out at BRCES in Neersville (conservation land) with my friend Diana who rode my hubby's big SSH Rocket, along with a few other ladies. Friday was soupy, but we didn't care! It's rained on so many of our weekends. We and the horses were so glad to get out. We rode for about three hours, and Luke was super.

Sunday I took my hubby's big boy Rocket out to the new equestrian park in Woodstock (my first time there), to ride with a friend on her semi-green TWH mare. Rocky's great with newbies, greenies, nervous riders and nervous horses. I was sad to leave Luke home but riding Rocky is alway such a kick (he's a racking horse) and he's got such a fun personality. He's worth his weight in gold, that horse. A little more pokey than I'm used to now (Luke likes to GO), but it was a really nice ride. It was actually cool and we got spit on a bit by the clouds. We were out for just over two hours -- had to get home because family was coming.

I'm hoping to ride again Thursday afternoon -- the weather here in VA is gorgeous this week!

[DairyQueen2049]

Started on the 13th and finished on the 28th - rode our horses across the state of MI from Lake MI to Lake Huron. :yes: :yes:

Most excellent adventure!

Me, hubby and about 87 others.

[Willobeasty]

Was a gorgeous weekend! DH and I did a 12 mile from our house, across the BLM and to the national forest. Didn't get as far as we expected because we went off-trail and ended up having to extricate ourselves from a narrow situation. Stirred up some **very fast** pronghorns, surprised a beautiful bobcat, moved a few errant cows out of the way. Enjoyed a nice bit of faster work - DH is learning still and we are working our way up to a 3-day endurance ride later this season. Horses worked enough this time to enjoy their bath once back at home, instead of their usual indignant protests - a sure sign that summer is here!