Hubby’s Mare….An Update

I haven’t done an update on the hubby’s mare in awhile and this weekend was pretty big, so I think it is time.

I promised I’d spend more time riding her and I have.  I’ve taken her on a few outings to include a clinic and a few trail rides.  We’ve spent many afternoons at home riding around our arena and pastures.  She is so much softer to ride and way more willing to do pretty much everything.  Our communication has improved greatly and I’ve gotten to actually enjoy her as a horse, instead of her just being my husband’s horse that needs a little more time, work and exercise.  She is pretty cool and I’m having lots of fun on her.

On Saturday I took her to an ACTHA ride.  I wanted to see how she would do in that type of environment.  Lots of other horses, strange things along the trails and being asked to perform specific tasks and obstacles along the way.  Going into the ride I promised I would be as clear and confident as I could in everything I asked her to do, in return I expected her to be calm, give me a safe ride and at least try.  Other than a little bit of  a fuzzy start due to the adrenaline and excitement of all the horses and riders she gave me everything I wanted and so much more.

We had 8 obstacles as part of our competition and I’m not sure she ever entirely loved the idea that there were weird random things throughout the woods with people there telling us what to do but she participated in the silliness anyway and genuinely seemed to enjoy the stretches of trails in between obstacles.  I certainly enjoyed the trails.  They were stunning with a lovely backdrop of full Fall colors and the surrounding mountains.

We picked up a random dog along the way who quite enjoyed himself as he darted in out of the woods and wound around up underneath the horses’ feet.  I thought we should have gotten bonus points for having an ongoing obstacle that traveled along with us for most of the ride.

The icing on the cake was that we took home a 5th place ribbon.  I didn’t really care where we came in or even how our scores came back, it was all about exposure and experience for the two of us BUT HEY….who doesn’t love to add a little bit of satin to the weekend.