Blog Hop: Shining Star

Yay a blog hop (by Beka at The Owls Approve) so I don't have to come up with original content for another few days because it's hard to talk about horses when I don't have a horse in full work.

Let's talk about the biggest achievements your horse has accomplished.  I'm not talking about you as a rider - I want to know what your ponykins has done to make you proud.  Is there a glorious satin collection, did he/she figure out some dressage movement that took months to learn, or are is it just a great day when your butt stays in the saddle?  It's not all about shows or the things that people see.

I'm going to do this in a few sections because I love talking about Rico. 

Dressage
Obviously Rico ended up being a Grand Prix dressage horse so that's his biggest accomplishment by far. I'm sure everyone is sick of me talking about dressage, I'm sure, so let me talk about Rico's other two big achievements with me: learning to jump and learning that trails aren't terrifying.


Jumping
Rico was bred to be a jumper (Ladykiller and Cor de la Bryere lines) but uh, he wasn't that great to start. When I first got him, he wouldn't trot through trot poles. I had to work him over a single pole (which he often refused). Eventually we worked up to small fences and I thought that with his excellent dressage training, eventing might be a possibility. So I did a combined test.

At the CT...

Uh it didn't go well.

I finally realized that I needed help. I sought the help of a hunter trainer who got Rico understanding jumping. He always had a stop in him, but it wasn't nasty or anything. Eventually he jumped some pretty scary fences, he's never been very brave over fences but once as he's been over something scary a few times, he's happy to keep jumping it.

He loves airy jumps though!

Trails
Oh gosh when I first got this horse, he hated trails. I love trail riding and plan to do it semi-regularly on all of my horses. In the beginning, every trail with Rico ended with him rearing, spinning, and heading home. Every day after his ride, I'd take him out on the trails. And every day on the trail I fought his rearing and spinning. Each day we made it a little further.

One day we made it almost through the whole loop when he lost his shit and started rearing. In order to get home, we had to go back through the whole loop. He didn't understand loops I guess... Wtf.

Not always as enthused to trail ride as he is here

But soon Rico figured out that maybe trail riding wasn't so bad. Within a year of buying him, I was out on the trails bareback. Eventually we were out on the trails bridleless too, galloping up hills and even jumping cross country fences. Big change from the horse who couldn't walk down a path in the woods without rearing, spinning, and heading home.

Despite all the rearing, he tried so hard to be good. I think he was struggling without his partner and with this weird teenaged kid on his back trying to get him to head down a narrow path surrounded by redwoods. I was likely nervous about him rearing and didn't help his confidence. Now he marches down the trail with confidence :)


I just got home from LA this evening! It was a wonderful trip but I'm totally ready for some horse time. Tomorrow I'm going to hang out with Rico (and walk down the road with my parents before the horses get the pasture for the first time in a while, we don't want Rico running too much) and hopefully ride baby horse. After a week of no horses, I'm ready to ride some ponies again!