Chrome Ride 142 - 100 Ride Challenge Ride 28 - Rocky Ride 14

 NuzMuz, Jackal was posing with Chrome just for you.  :D

Chrome, Rocky, Hubby and I went for a fun ride today!  We started out on the road and then when we got back home I did some cantering on him again.  It was awesome!  He moves so much better at the canter after a really long warm up.  There is video further down in the post, plus screenshots for those of you who can't watch videos.

I thought Rocky was walking weird, so I had hubby trot him out and Chrome was watching, so alert, but with his hoof resting lol.

When they got out of sight up the driveway he started pawing lol.

Luckily he only did it once or twice and then he stood still again...

well after trying to use the tree to pull his halter over his ear... 

he's getting really good at that...........

Rocky was fine so we tacked up and headed off down the road.  We went a total of 3.20 miles and the part of the ride on the road was an hour and ten minutes.  My total ride on Chrome was an hour and twenty eight minutes.  There was a bit of trying to turn around and balking going on at first.  Ugh!  We also stopped to talk to a neighbor who drove by.

Chrome started out being really annoying.  Part of the problem is that he was looking for the neighbor horses, but they aren't there anymore.... I don't remember if I mentioned it, but neighbor girl B had to move her horses so my riding buddy is gone.  :(  Chrome doesn't know they are gone though.  It was so funny because when we passed the open gate he tried to turn in.  He really wanted to go in and look for them.

Taking pictures of hubby taking pictures hehe.

Rocky is soooo black and shiny right now!  Love it!

Eventually they stopped being so annoying and started walking out.  Rocky always starts out trying to turn around because he's barn sour, but he really wasn't as bad as he used to be.  Chrome being a butt was causing Rocky to try to turn more than he would have if Chrome hadn't been weaving back and forth across the road.  Chrome's problem was looking for the horses.  I'm hoping once he realizes they are gone he will chill out!  We actually only saw a couple of horses today even though we rode around the block and they were at a distance so he didn't act stupid.  It was so nice!  I kind of wish more people would move their horses away or that they would always be in the backs of their pastures lol.

His neck looks so thick because he had it arched.

When we cut across the field at the halfway point they both were a lot more eager and happily moving along.  Sometimes I wonder if the pavement bothers them both a little.... maybe I should get boots.  I just don't know if boots will fit Rocky's weird twisted pigeon toed hoof....  Part of it was probably because the field is novel to them both.  They so rarely get to go there.  I LOVED it!!  It is so much more fun to ride out across a field than it is to be on a paved road.

Oh I almost forgot to mention.  I opened and closed the gate from Chrome's back both when we left and when we got home!!!!  Hubby and Rocky had to help though because Chrome doesn't neck rein or sidepass.  Opening it was easy, but closing it isn't because it swings away, so I positioned him where I could reach the latch and hubby swung the gate to us.  It worked well.  Such good teamwork!

He arched his neck again looking down at the tall stuff we walked through.

It makes his neck look weird lol.

Both horses in the field.

I have to get pictures of Rocky.  

He is SO black and SO shiny!

Yay hubby got a picture of me riding Chrome through the field.

He took others but they were really blurry (worse than this one) for some reason.

Hoses on a tupperware tub!  Scary!!

There were several things that spooked the horses a bit.  One was the hose up above.  There was two other tubs several feet over back in the brush that he couldn't see very well so it had him freaked out.  He would not approach it at first until Rocky walked toward it.  Then he walked right up to it, as you can see above.  He was so puffed up though.  Once he was satisfied it wasn't a monster he turned away and pooped next to it haha.

The other things were deer in the woods (they didn't spook, just paused and stared up the hill) and geese!  The geese were a totally different story.  We were walking down the road on the way home and on our left side was a fence absolutely covered in brush, so they couldn't see anything on that side.  Up ahead there is a driveway and pasture on the left and two Canada geese with their babies came out onto the road.  Rocky spooked, but Chrome didn't notice them at first.

They turned back, but then finally crossed the road.  Chrome finally saw them and stared at them, walking forward eagerly until they disappeared in the tall grass on the other side of the road.  It's like once they were in the grass and all he could see was their little heads it flipped him out!  It felt like he was going to turn and bolt.  It took forever to convince them both to walk forward again.

When Chrome got to the driveway where they were originally before crossing, he was staring around the corner and when he drew even with it he tried to bolt.  He didn't make it more than a stride at a trot before I got him stopped.  I was laughing so hard I can't believe I didn't fall out of the saddle.  He did some prancing, but eventually got over it.  I'm so happy that his spookiness and prancing don't scare me anymore!  It's such a huge breakthrough for me with the whole stupid fear crap.

Like hubby said earlier Chrome has a lot of potential and the only thing holding him back is me.  He's right.  It's always been me that's held him back.  I don't care though.  You can't just rush through fear.  I had to have good experiences with him and learn what his reactions to fear are before I could be comfortable.  Now that I know the worst he is going to do is bolt (and that I can stop them easily) I can be more confident about riding him through his shenanigans.  :)

It's really funny though what bothers him and what doesn't.  They were eating hay in the pasture yesterday and I was mowing the fence rows and around the barn with my push mower where hubby can't get to with the bush hog.  I was mowing right behind Chrome and he didn't care!  In fact when I got too close to Rocky he left, but Chrome didn't.  :D

Hubby selfie with me in the background with my wrist looking broken haha.

Love Rocky's thick neck and shiny mane!

Anyway sorry for all the rambling.  When we got home hubby got off, but I spent another eighteen minutes riding.  Around ten minutes of that was spent trotting and cantering!  That's probably the longest I've trotted and definitely the longest I've cantered him at one time.  :D

Here is the video.  It shows a bunch of canter clips and some trot and walk ones.  I LOVE how he can canter around and then immediately walk around on the buckle.  :D  There's a surprise at the end....


Don't worry I have screenshots for people who can't watch videos.  They actually didn't turn out as good as the last ones, which surprised me.  I think there were several reasons for that.  One is that the sun was shining and where it came through the trees it made Chrome really bright.  Another is that hubby was further back.  The last thing is that I told him to just hold the phone still instead of following me with it because I thought that would make them less blurry.  It made the background less blurry, but not us!  Oops!  I got it all mixed up in my head haha.  Anyway here are the screenshots.  Please ignore my slouching and crappy riding.  I wasn't paying any attention to my posture at all.

 Look how stretched out he was!  I wish the sun hadn't been so bright on him in this one. 

 Then he walks on the buckle.  :D 

 No hands!  My arms were out straight.  This was right before he started cantering.

Cantering with no hands!!!!!!  So exciting!

I've come a long way from the person who was terrified to canter.  :D

Just ignore my crouching forward.  Apparently I think having no hands on the reins is going to mess up my balance haha.  I seriously need a longe line lesson to work on my seat with no hands.... bad!

That's all for today!  Sorry it was so long.  I hope you enjoyed all of the pictures.