Zena's Training

The trainer I hired last year to get Zena rebroke to ride did such a great job, not only with Zena, but with me!  She taught me so much, and she helped me get some of my confidence back, so this spring I decided that, rather than calling the trainer to come back out to give Zena a spring refresher, I was going to try to do it myself.  I figured that, if it didn't go well, then I would call the trainer, but I at least wanted to try. 

I have been trying to work with Zena at least once a week for a while now, and each week I can tell that she and I are both getting better.  Now the trainer probably would have hopped on Zena the first day, but since I'm not her, I decided to take my time and make sure that I built a really solid foundation with Zena myself before I got on her, and not just rely on the foundation she built with the trainer last year.  Based on how things have been going, my plan was to ride her today for the first time this year.

When I first got out there today I started thinking that the deck might be stacked against me.  First off, I didn't get to work with Zena last week because of the weather and the vet visit for shots and teeth, and by the time I got out to the roundpen today a pretty good breeze had picked up, so Zena started out like a firecracker!  I was finally starting to get her settled down a bit when the farmer that owns the field next to me came down our fence line in a big tractor spraying his field.  Zena blew up!!  Fortunately I was still in the groundwork phase of things at this point.  I finally got her settled down and had her paying attention, so I put her side pull on her and hopped on.  She did great!  Since this was our first ride of the year (and I could hear the tractor getting closer again) I decided to just make it a very short ride and end on a good note.  She walked off perfectly, she backed nicely, and she behaved so well the entire time I was riding her.  I'm so proud of her, and frankly, I'm pretty proud of myself!  My confidence level has skyrocketed from what it was this time last year, and I feel like Zena and I have really strengthened our bond.  I'm a happy, happy girl right now!

OK, so enough talk, now it's time for some pictures!

Zena started out like a firecracker!

Although you can't see it in this picture, the tractor is directly across from the roundpen at this point, and Zena lost it!

Finally settling down (you can see the big tractor backed up to our fence on the left side of this picture)

Free lunging calmly

Zena's all dressed up and ready to ride

I'm in the saddle on Zena for the first time this year!

Riding nicely

My sweet, silly, beautiful Zena girl 

Thank you! I'm hoping the weather will cooperate so I can spend some more time in the saddle on her this weekend.

I worked with and rode Zena and Sis both on the 4th of July.  They both did great (although I was sore and walking like John Wayne for 2 days afterwards!  ). Hubby came out to the round pen to keep me company and take pictures, and he even rode Zena for the first time this year that day too! (I'll have to get some of those pictures loaded up to Photobucket so I can share some with you here.) She could still use a little fine-tuning, though, so I contacted the trainer to see if she could come out and work with Zena a bit more.  At this point we are looking at having her start hopefully next week. 

Fingers crossed for you ! It would be nice if you were able to enjoy some horsey time on a more regular basis.

As promised, here are some pictures from my 4th of July rides.  Unfortunately my camera was not wanting to focus, so most of the pictures hubby took of me riding Zena turned out all blurry , so I had to just snip a picture from the video I shot of my training/riding session with her.

I was really glad that hubby wanted to come out to watch me work with and ride the horses, and I was thrilled that he wanted to ride.  I would have loved it if he had wanted to get in the round pen and try doing some groundwork with Zena himself, but I've come to the realization that he's never going to want to do that, so I'll take what I can get.

Me putting the 2nd ride of the year on Zena (and hubby sitting taking pictures outside the round pen)

Hubby riding Zena for the first time this year

And, since I did work with and ride both of my horses that day, I can't leave Sis out, so here are a couple pictures of me riding Sis that day