Liz Howell

Archive for the ‘Sudden’ Category

The horses really had a workout this past weekend. Kelsey and Jessica came Friday after school and stayed until Sunday evening. They stayed on the horses as much as possible and I think they had a pretty good time even though I made them do chores and did not let them go to the barn at 11:00 at night.  They wanted to sleep in the horse trailer one night but all I could think of was some crazy or some animal coming to get them so I had to say no to that idea.

We painted little Breyer horses and although none of us are very good painters and our paint was pretty thick we had a good time judging each others horse.  The video is of them jumping for the first time. Sudden has jumped small jumps before but to Zee Zee this was all brand new.  She got a little cranky later in the day as she is not used to being ridden so much, plus I just don't think Paso Finos are really built to jump.

My Niece and her family came to visit and the kids got to ride a horse I have in for some ride time. Rio is already broke to ride but is nervous and has picked up a few bad habits that his owner would like fixed.  We are trading off a Paso Fino saddle (which I really need) for a months riding which his owner needs, so it works out all around for us.

He was a little spooky at first with all the laughing, squealing, and running around but quickly calmed down. I really think kids are a great training tool for nervous horses provided you do it safely.

For the past 3 or 4 weeks Sudden has been ridden once a week by a 12 year old girl named Kelsey.  Kelsey had put an ad on a local website wanting a horse to ride and since I can not comfortably ride Sudden I thought it might be a good match.  Kelsey said she was experienced and had taken lessons but from her first ride I knew that to not be exactly true. She certainly knows how to sit on a horse but we had to fix her hands, legs and heels.  I have given her some tips and hollered many a time and made her legs hurt with some exercises just enough that I think she is beginning to get the hang of it.  I try to not butt in too much unless she is doing something really wrong as I feel it is important that she learn to think on her own and figure things out.

Sudden is being a perfect angel and gives her just enough trouble that Kelsey realizes she can't just be a passenger but has to actually ride.  Today Kelsey was trying to learn how to post correctly but every time she would go up Sudden would either go back into a walk or a really slow jog. I tried to explain how to squeeze as she went up but was unable to get my point across so I had her practice riding the trot without her stirrups to help build up her balance and strength. I don't think Kelsey was very happy with me today either that or she was just frustrated.

After the ride Kelsey, her sister and her cousin took turns riding Sudden and then they gave her a bath.  It was really cute to see the three of them washing her and arguing amongst themselves about who was doing what.  Sudden really enjoyed the bath and soaked up the attention.