Ride 39 continued...

Okay, yesterday's ride was in a different saddle.  It is a treeless saddle (in my favorite color), but I didn't have a special pad to go under it so I used a regular one.  Big mistake.  Chrome's back is sore today.  I thought it would be okay since it was a short ride just to see if I could post in it better than the Aussie saddle.  Since his back is sore I won't use it again until I can get one of the special spine relief pads.  It might be a while though because those things are expensive!!  I guess the good news is that every single time I've ridden in the Aussie saddle I have never gotten a response from palpating his back, so it must not hurt him.  I guess for now I'm going to give up on trying to work on posting the trot and just enjoy trail riding my boy in the Aussie saddle until I can afford lessons and a new saddle or a new saddle pad.

I mentioned in my post yesterday that the ride was thirty minutes long (mostly walking because his stifles were locking, but he warmed up out of it; however they are locking again today...) and I did sort of figure out why I was having trouble with my lower leg.  I was bracing on the stirrups with my legs away from his body.  Once I wrapped my legs around him and kept my calf on him they stopped swinging as much.  Unfortunately I am so long legged and he is so narrow that I have trouble keeping my toes forward with my leg on him.  I'm getting so frustrated trying to figure all of this out with no trainer and improper equipment, so I'm just going to trail ride and enjoy my horse.  Out on the trail is where my heart really is anyway.  Later when we've recovered from the financial strain of moving and building a new house I'll get better equipment and start taking lessons again.  For now we're going to just go have fun.  Here are the rest of the picture.  Sorry for the rambling and making no sense (headache).  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

 One of the fallen logs we walk over to build up his stifles.

 All done for the ride, so I dropped my stirrups.

This one cracked me up.  We walked into a spider web and I was freaking out lol.

Ride 39

I just wanted to post really quick to mention that I rode Chrome today.  I will go into more details tomorrow because there are few things I want to share.  For now I'll just share a couple of pictures and details.  The ride was thirty minutes long in a saddle.  I wore my breeches and paddock boots (and remembered why I don't wear them because they are two sizes too small and hurt like hell!).  Chrome's stifle was locking again, which makes me sad because it hasn't bothered him in so long.  I hand walked him to warm him up and he mostly worked out of it so I decided to go ahead and ride.  After a long walking warm up with no locking I worked on trotting.  I figured out part of the reason my leg is swinging, but I'll share that with you tomorrow.  We were in the pasture and he was being horribly barn sour (and hubby sour; veering toward him), but otherwise willing.  I completely forget I'm riding a greenie sometimes.  He doesn't make me nervous at all.  :D I'll post more details tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving day!!!  I hope you all had the perfect holiday filled with family and good food.  :)  I was going to make a list of everything I'm thankful for, but I have a lot going on, so I will just say I'm thankful for Chrome!  I love that horse.

I will share some more pictures of us in a day or two.  :)