Ride 107

More beautiful weather meant I had to ride again.  :D  Hubby wanted to try riding again too.  I was telling him about the success Karen has had riding with a bad back and how riding has strengthened her back to where she can ride without pain now.  That gave him hope that he can get back to riding like he used to.  He's always loved riding, but his back was too painful to even sit on a horse for more than a minute.  Now that it's doing better he wants to get back in the saddle!

I let him ride first because I wanted to do some cantering so I figured he could warm Chrome up for me.

He rode for about fifteen minutes and I rode for about fifteen minutes, so it wasn't a long ride, but I don't want to overdo it because Chrome's stifle did give out once.

Jackal likes when we ride in the yard.

He even trotted a little!

Chrome was such a good boy!

This is my all time new favorite picture of them!

I hopped on and walked around for a bit before I started working on the canter (up and down the driveway).  He did better going up the driveway because the neighbor horses were up by our gate and he could see them.  He cantered toward the house too, but not as eagerly.  :)  Here are some pictures.

 Look at how he uses his back!  Love it!

 Eager boy.  

 Yes I was holding onto the saddle horn with my left hand like a big chicken.

I never used to told the saddle horn...

 What I love about these stretched out pictures is his mane flying up!!

He has a mane!!  I hope he doesn't rub it out this year.  :)

 I let him graze a little while after the ride, then when it was time to put him up I didn't even bother with a halter or rope...

If you can't see the video click here.

For those who can't see videos here is a screenshot showing how I lead him by the chin.  :D  I normally lead horses by their manes and even had a mare that would lead by her forelock, but with Chrome's mane roached and his obvious dislike of me pulling on his forelock I resorted to the chin and it works great.  :)