beach

[kirkcudbright]

New icon, yay!

Why didn't I post this yesterday? Oh yeah, XP has a stroke while processing the pictures, and chkdsk hadn't finished by the time I went to bed.

Anyway, I went horseback riding on the beach twice this week, with lyonesse. Wednesday was very very windy, and her dear sweet ponykins ran away with her, so the whole this was kind of cut short. Yesterday (Friday) was about 2 hours on the beach, and was generally more successful, despite the fact that I spent half the time fighting with my horse about his head-tossing.

He loves to run (not all horses do, I've found), but his favorite gait is the out-of-hand gallop, and when he gets excited or annoyed, he starts tossing his head. This can be merely annoying, or it can jerk you forward, or pull the reins out of your hands. So we spent a lot of time on corrections - single-rein halts if I happened to be bit-reining at the time, all the way up to whacking him in the face with the (knotted) end of the reins if I happened to be neck-reining. It may sound kind of extreme, but it's all pretty business-like, delivered with an air of "knock-it-off-already".

Anyway, reasonable ride all things considered, but the beach riding season is October through March, so we have half a year to work on his attitude before we can go again. (He does the same thing in the woods, no fear.)




This is Cheyenne. His coloration is bright chestnut with a white blaze. Note the cutout or dot near the top of the blaze; Laine calls this the target, for when she can't deal with his shit anymore. (She says this to his fuzzy face.) Shortly after this picture was taken, he pulled the hitching ring out of the wall.


What the water does to the sand.






lyonesse on Stjarni, Laine on Rio.


Me on Cheyenne (late afternoon, on a little rise maybe two feet above the rest of the beach). Francie immediately made the comparison to The Giant Horse of Oz.

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

cool pictures!

in ponykins' defense, he only ran away with me on wednesday because i was cueing him for flying pace, rather than to slow the heck down. )it's a good thing he isn't actually trained to flying pace. celebmith having enlightened me about icelandic-style rein use at fast gaits, stjarni slowed down whenever asked on friday.

i should also note that you went from riding him on the beach in a ported bit with a cricket, to a d-ring rubber snaffle, without actual reduction in control. (bits don't stop horses, horses stop themselves. or not.) and yeah, we've got all summer to work on the head-tossing. there's a tiny little brain behind that target, and cheyenne is a good guy. you kind of dig the out-of-hand gallop, too :)

[guenpanther.livejournal.com]

Wow, that all looks awesome! :-)

[quietann.livejournal.com]

That is so awesome. I'd love to ride on the beach sometime, but obviously it will be October at the earliest, and there is the question of what horse. Minnie would undoubtedly be a crazy galloper.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

PS -- check your email re baby rats...

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

Gypsy had her first time on the beach yesterday, and oh mannn, that girl can RUN. I've never had such a good time with a horse.

[mrw42.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a beautiful day! The picture of the shadow horse is wonderful. Perhaps you should enter it in a contest or something...