Sunday.
I missed my ride, so i thought i'd make the best of the situation. Prince was across the river, and had no grass. i was on the normal side that the house is on - with all the grass!
I walked across the swing bridge and wound up the fence reel i wasn't using and i gathered up some standards, prince's water trough, water buckets (used to carry water up from the river as we don't have hose) and the electric fence unit. i set up a the fence on the roadside and poured water into a bucket
i then dashed into my room to get changed, and then grabbed prince's rope halter and lead and marched arcoss the swing bridge (jumping and swinging it as i ran) and when i got to Prince's paddock i jumped the fence and waited. And waited. i waited until i felt his nose touch me, then i slowly turned around and rubbed his neck and then i haltered him.
i walked down the bank to the river and waited at the bottom for Prince to jump down. he half jumped and the kinda waddled the rest of the way down. Once down he snatched mouthfuls of Native New Zealand trees. he knows he's not aloud to eat them. this is why he pinches bits when he can - because they taste soooo good!
anyway i took him across the FREEZING cold river, numbing my legs off after two seconds of been in there.. and plonked him in his paddock on the roadside.
About three o'clock i got my butt into gear and decided i was going to ride that naughty horse of mine. i did a bit of groundwork. jumping and such. i made a long jump - by laying the barrels down and putting three fence posts horizontally across them. He didn't want to jump it but i put more 'ask' into it and he jumped it. Then to my surprise he offered and from a standstill (just checking for traffic) and jumped clean and clear!
then when i asked Prince to do the circling game he switched in to play drive mode and galloped about fifteen circles either way (him throwing in a change of direction for fun) and plenty of bucks chucked in for a good measure. i'm not kidding about the laps either..
So when he calmed down i tightened his girth and jumped on and started off by doing lots of walking to get me used to his gait again. i also did backing through the two barrels, and sideways over some poles and up a barrel (this one was done on the ground).
i then started trotting. i trotted posting, and i trotted sitting. When i got confident enough i wanted him to canter. No matter how many times i tried - going through my fazes and asking and asking he still didn't. Our ride was two hours long. i gave up but finished on a posting trot. i figured if i couldn't get him to canter then it was something i was doing.
i talked to mum and she told me i was me. She told me how to fix it so i cant wait to get back on and try again.
i won't be able to ride in the holidays because i am going to tauranga for five days.. maybe I'll do it on saturday...
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