March 27, 2009

Zak plays horsey

Zak came along with Neo & Beau today. He loaded well (even if I did have to rattle food at him) and behaved while I was busy with the other horses. I've been slowly starting him over the past month or so. Our intention was to back him (he is 2yo) and then turn him out again to grow. His mouthing & long reining has been going well, and I've sat on him a few times - including a short walk down the driveway at home. Today I wanted to 'ride' him in an unfamiliar environment. I saddled him up and led him to the arena, then found a barrell (probably not the best item) to hop on from. Luckily he doesn't scare too easily, as the barrell started rolling toward him:
He stood perfectly while I got on. Then after an initial 'what do you want' he walked forward nicely for me. He wasn't spooky at all - but did take an interest in everything that was around him (and kept trying to drift towards the jumps too!). I was pleased with his stop-go responses and his steering wasn't bad either (still using an open rein to assist).
We walked a circle on each rein, then stopped and I got off him. I'm really happy with how he is doing, and now he gets to go out on the hills somewhere to grow for a year or two before we start any more work on him
Thanks to Swifty for taking pics, and a big thanks to Odette for giving us such a lovely foal.

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