New Year's Day Ride

I love this little mare! She is so expressive and at the same time reserved, curious and logical, practical and ruler of the herd! I mentioned before how she has everyone under her control, but really I have never seen Larz like this with any of the mares that have been through here. He never leaves her side and does everything she wants, keeps everyone away from the pile of hay they are sharing,scratches her when she bids him to, bla, bla, bla, Kind of sickening that Larz could be so taken! He is going to miss her when she finds her forever person!

So I have started a new tradition for my herd and that is that every horse that is rideable gets ridden on the First Day of the New Year! This way we are sure to have a good year! Well, even though Hailey is just newly rideable I figured she might as well get out there. We have had several nice moments in the arena, and 3 small "trail" rides before this. However, she was so good that I figured she was up to the task. And no small task it was. 13 horses all together, she being the greenest, but several others that are a bit young too, 4 gaited horses, which immediately tells one that there is going to be some speed involved, 1 person bareback, and several youths. We started out straight down a slippery hill, which in hindsight I totally would have avoided. All the babies wanted to run and jump and are slipping and sliding all over. Hailey held it together quite nicely in the midst of all that excitement, although she too was "chomping at the bit" (although I was riding in a hackamore...)

Slide time over we climbed up and out the other side and soon caught up to the "fast" group who was waiting for us as a boot on Larz had failed. Those pulled off and put away, off went the "fast" group again, leaving our "slow" group horses in a bit of a tizzy. Meanwhile we realized that one horses saddle bags had failed and needed to be removed it too. Amazing Hailey on her first big ride comes to the rescue and we get that horse to face us and she handed me her rope to hold him so she could at least get off. Hailey stood perfectly, not a foot off the ground. Pack removed, rider remounted, rope returned, off we head on the short cut to get ahead of the fast group. Puddles, tight spaces, hills and rocks, she trip trapped through it all. Very carefully and willingly, really not a moment that she didn't feel like a seasoned trail horse. Amazing really if you think about it. A month ago we weren't sure she could ever be rideable and today she has completed her first 2 hour trail ride with flying colors, even though she was a bit tired.