So, this summer I've gotten the wonderful opportunity to start training some of my barn's horses! For the last two weeks I started training a horse named Rylee (a seventeen hand high quarter horse) and even took him out on his first trail ride by himself and cantered him without problems! (He's always been in an arena and freaks out when taken out of the arena, so this was a great achievement!) Rylee's back up at the Horse Co-op as of Monday, and was switched out with two other horses I'll be working with, an Apaloosa gelding named Jerry and a Paint gelding named Pablo. Pablo will be getting saddle training (he has bucking issues and attitude problems) while Jerry, who can't be ridden anymore, will be getting concentrated groundwork. (Jerry doesn't like to flex or be sent, so we'll be working on that) I'm so excited to have this amazing opportunity to have horses pretty much everyday! :D I'll try to put up some pictures of the 'boys' soon. :D

-GC

 It sounds like you're going to have a fun, horse-filled summer.  Keep us posted about their progress 

So how has the training gone so far on the two new horses?

It went pretty good! We ended up only having them for two weeks, but we got some good work done with them. Pablo was actually the one being really naughty with the sending excercises, and tried to kick when we tried to send him. He quickly realized though that as soon as he kicked at us, we made his job a whole lot harder for him! Jerry was an angel during those two weeks, and in turn he didn't need as much work. The boys went back to the Horse Co-op and Rylee came back down and has been down here since then. He's progressed so fast, and I'm so proud of him! He bridles perfectly now, stands still while mounting, backs up four different ways on the ground and can do a whole bunch of riding excercises. I've also taken him out onto the farmer's properties and just cantered him for two miles. His canter has really slowed down and he doesn't get so excited anymore. :D I just put him on a loose rein and off we go! It has been an amazing year. I feel so blessed to be able to work with these wonderful horses. My ultimate goal is to turn Rylee into a versatility horse-I want any kid to be able to ride him English or Western and for him to respond to whatever they're asking of him. So we'll see how that all goes in the end! Thanks for asking about the horses NWBuckskinLvr! :D

Some of you have probably seen the pictures on my gallery already, but I wanted to share some of them here. :D The pictures are of Rylee, the horse I spent the most time on this Summer. It sounds like there's a good possibility I'll get to care for him all Winter! Plus, I am currently training a horse for one of my neighbor's, and have another neighbor who wants me to start on her horse too! :D I'm really excited about all this hands-on experience!

 

...And, it seems it won't let me post the pictures. :( Augh! Try to see how to fix that somehow.