# The "I had a great ride .. .. " Thread



## ChingazMyBoy (Apr 16, 2009)

Hey,

Well I figured a thread for the people who have had a great ride would be easier then having sevearal threads, so you can post all types of things. English or Western riding, Your new or old horse, A show or just training.

Post away guys~


----------



## EventingIsLovee (Sep 18, 2009)

My barn owner lets the state running xc teams compete at our barn, using our (horse) xc course because there are miles of trails on it. There are meets every year, including championships, and cars and busses park in our pastures. 

So yesterday, there was a meet, and I came to the barn with my friend. The runners said they have never actually seen any horses actually doing anything, so we decided to ride while the meet was going on. We set up a jump course, and did half dressage riding and half jumping. It was really exciting to know that other people who weren't involved in the horse world got to see us ride, and personally, I was trying to show off! 

We started with a little flat work to get the horses warmed up (obviously) with a little w/t/c. So then, we set up a course which was:

A bounce which was a cavaletti to a 2' jump, then to a 3' oxer, and last, a (long four or short five stride) line that had 3' jump to a 3'3" jump. We could only work with the poles and standards that we had in the ring at the time, because the rest were in the indoor. We kept doing the jumps individually and the course, but only enough that it was fair to the horses. And we ended with flatwork again! It was really fun


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Can I add an "I hope for a great ride" post? I am gonna ride Koda for the first time in months tomorrow and I hope he doesn't buck me off. LOL. I will post the details tomorrow.


----------



## EventingIsLovee (Sep 18, 2009)

be careful!


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I appreciate that but careful really isn't my forte. LOL. I will more than likely just throw the saddle on and step aboard. I will tell my Dad to run the camera in case anything funny happens, I would hate for ya'll to miss it.


----------



## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

I tried a half pass the other day for the first time! And my instructor said it was actaully very good (!!!) haha rena is so good I love her! I also got to try a flying change, which both me AND rena are new at, she's still getting used to the feeling of them. But she was great.. Haha in one we went bucking across the diagnol. But I serprized her.


----------



## ridingismylife2 (Nov 4, 2008)

I had a great lesson yesterday.
I got to ride Maestro (rode him last year a lot) and he was great. 
He does these awesome random bucks when you try to make him go a little faster and it's hilarious. 
We jumped a course and it went well and the instructor put the jumps higher for me while the others had to jump the smaller jumps. I think she's finally realizing that I have got better and can start jumping higher. Yay! 
She did it last week also. 

And 2 weeks ago I had the best riding lesson of my life. I rode Sultan (my avi) and he was amazing and we jumped up to 3ft.
So much fun!


----------



## ChingazMyBoy (Apr 16, 2009)

How did your ride go Smrobs, and I'm glad everyone had great rides.  I'll post how my ride doing dressage on Chinga goes.


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Well, I had a great ride today . I saddled Koda for the first time in months and stepped aboard. He seemed a little fresh so I took him to an open area to trot a few circles before I got very far from the house, just to make sure he wasn't planning to poot me off LOL. Then I hit a nice easy lope to one of my neighbor's pastures that is about a mile north of the house. Then loped the fenceline of the entire half-section (1 mile deep by 1/2 mile wide). Then eased down to a nice easy trot for the last half a mile or so back to the house. Worked on his stop and his cadence. Got him trotting with his brakes on (apparently he had forgotten how to do that during turnout) again. All in all, it was a real nice ride. I had forgotten how nice his lope was. It is collected and controlled, I want to say slow, but not like WP slow. So easy to ride and so smooth. I may have a good ride tomorrow too, I get to go help brother wean about 100 head of cattle.


----------



## gypsygirl (Oct 15, 2009)

i had an awesome ride today ! it was my 4th ride on my 3yo since she bucked me off & broke my arm. she was sooooo good =] she was on the bit about 50% of the time id say. she is my dream horse !


----------



## IheartPheobe (Feb 15, 2009)

Well on Saturday my friend fell off Roger (the pony I am riding now.. he has a lot of behavior problems & I have been working with him) and broke her shoulder. I had ridden him that Wednesday and he had been fine. By fine I mean he never tried to get me off. Sure he bolted, fought his bit ect but didn't try to get me off by any means. That day had been a pretty bad one.. tons of bolting.. but he was jumping muuch better  
So today was the first time I rode him since the accident.. was a bit nervous because I was not sure how he was going to act! I was supposed to ride D today but rode Roger instead. Megan asked me to ride in her dressage lesson, and I must say I'm glade she did!! Megan rides Roger herself so I was hoping she may have some tips for me. I also hadn't ridden him in the small ring in a while and thought less open space might calm him down a little.. Once we got down there I just knew it was gonna be a great ride 
We have a dressage arena set up in the small ring, so we went into the dressage arena and trotted around.. then did 20 meter circles. my original biggest problem with roger was getting him to trot 20 meter circles (he would buck twist crowhop..) but today he was greatt. Still buddy sour so he wanted to fallow the others a lot.. but he only bolted once and came down pretty easy!  We did a practice dressage test (we aren't entering the dressage comp. because we really aren't ready but it was fun anyhow) and he was perffect! Circles were greatt! Also had GREAT cantering work today I didn't pull on him too much at all, sat back the whole time he barely took off


----------



## ChingazMyBoy (Apr 16, 2009)

Well, I'm hoping for a good ride. Haven't ridden since Saturday.


----------



## 1dog3cats17rodents (Dec 7, 2007)

I had a terrific ride today! We jumped 2'9"-3' (I think) It was the first lesson with no (zip, nadda, not even one) extra swap since he started that habit months ago. Yay! We also got all the strides, he was very uphill and beneath me, and man has he got power! We kept knocking one pole, he's not used to bigger jumps. The third time I said JUMP with a strong leg, some spur and really focused on following him over the jump with my release. He cleared it easily! I also really improved with my release today; I didn't catch him in the mouth at all and as a result he jumped rounder and stretched a bit.


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I had another good ride today. Went to help my brother pen and sort 105 cows and 74 calves. Wormed the cows then turned them back out before loading the calves in the trailer to take them to the pens in preperation for going to the sale tomorrow. Dobe nearly tore the seat out of my pants doing exactly what I asked him to do HAHA. We were sorting the cows and they were being stubborn trying to stay with their calves. Anyway, one was trying to go the wrong way and started off at a run. I bumped Dobe with a heel to spring to head her off but didn't realize the fence was so close. Anyway, the cow met the fence and us at the same time and because I didn't ask him to stop, Dobe just plowed into her with his chest at a long lope. It knocked the cow over, nearly caused him to fall, and threw me off balance to the side all at the same time. I think I pulled a muscle in my side but that is the only bad part about it. I do love a horse that will do exactly what you tell them with no fear. LOL. It was a lot of fun. Also cut a cow and played NCHA for a while. He still isn't good compared with a horse bred for it but he does well for what I need.


----------



## vivache (Jun 14, 2009)

I had a really great ride today. It was me and Razz's first ride since he was diagnosed with white line. He had a month off, but I haven't ridden him for a few extra weeks because I was doing heavier riding than I was comfortable putting him through. Well, the vet said he's fine now, and I got to ride him! He's gained weight, so I took him to Fat Camp. 

My instructor ran over in a lesson, and wanted to know if I'd mind riding in a lesson with three more-or-less beginners. I didn't mind at all-- the people were nice. Well, I rode Razz in a circle. They followed, which is OK. Two of the beginners and I started to trot.. well, kind of. I trotted.  One was getting really upset, so I popped off of Razz and got on Sun, who just wouldn't trot. Well, I made him haul.. especially after he kept circling in front of the gate. Once Sun was in a better mood, I got back on Razz, and did some walk-trot transitions. 

Then we got to canter. I missed his canter. It's forward, but smooth and he collects easily. We did some walk-canter and trot-canter transitions. After that, we trotted some crossrails(My second time.. I need to work on keeping him going over the jump.. we kept stopping in front of it). As a cooldown, I took his saddle off and rode bareback.. then did some rider exercises and stretches. 

It was great.


----------



## WelcomeStranger28 (Oct 21, 2009)

Welll I had a great-ish ride yester day!!! It was only the 2nd time that he has been ridden in the new place!! I got him cantering on the left lead WITHOUT BEING BUCKED OFF!!! yay! but we were doing circle work with a jump in it and everytime we were approching it he would try to drop out coz there was no fence!! We did great, he just needs to stop being so head strong when I pull him up!!


----------



## ridingismylife2 (Nov 4, 2008)

I hope my lesson is good today


----------



## zurmdahl (Feb 25, 2009)

Last night I had a great ride  We've been having issues with cantering, Flower likes to go fast and brace against me and then I brace against her and then we just book around the ring and its kinda a mess. But last night everything went really, really well. I switched her into a french link snaffle a few days ago and since then she's been so much better. We had a really great canter on the left lead and after some advice from another boarder who is an amazing rider we had a good canter on the right lead. 

Then I had to do turn in, but I left my friend get on and jump her. She was really, really good. She didn't rush and she seemed really happy the whole time. It was so great


----------



## savvylover112 (Jul 17, 2009)

I had a great great great ride today lol I am so happy with my little pony Patch. For those of you that don't know a while ago Patch cut his right eye and is blind in it. Well today was the first time riding him away from home since his accident. We did a couple of small jumps in my friends arena and then we went out on her mini cross country and Patch did every single jump. He was the best pony ever today I really wasn't expecting him to be soooooo good


----------



## ChevyPrincess (Aug 27, 2009)

Wow! Nice to hear everyone's nice rides =] The last time I rode my Bo in the round pen after join up with just a saddle, working on leg pressure. He did so good! I eventually hope to get him where I can ride tackless, haha!


----------



## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

On Wednesday night at my lesson, after being off for two weeks because I had strep throat & then a horrible reaction to Penicillin, I was amazed at how Daytona did.  We even jumped a 2'6 oxer! She NEVER liked oxers...she jumped it so willingly! I was so proud of her.  Glad to hear about everyone's good rides!


----------



## ridingismylife2 (Nov 4, 2008)

Got to ride Bentley today. I've only rode him once before and today was my first time jumping him. He's awesome.  He's really sensitive so it took me some time to get used to him but once we started jumping he was great!  
Great lesson. 
Here's a pic of Bentley before the lesson:








*was taken with my iPhone.


----------



## savvylover112 (Jul 17, 2009)

Well I am hoping to have a great ride tomorrow lol


----------



## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Finally got on Gucci  Old boy has been out of work for 12 months due to injury. Have been lunging him for the last couple of weeks, and decided to hop on the other day in the round yard. He was such a legend!! Found his shoulder in, travers and walk pirouette button straight away. Man this horse is good fun!
Took him to my coaches yesterday to see what he'd be like out somewhere different, he was fine so popped him on the lunge them hopped on for a cruise around the arena. Had a little trot and he was fantastic, bit of leg yield really helped him get his balance too. 
The Dad had a little walk around on him (since Gucci is dad's horse to be) and fell in love. I think gucci is going to be perfect for him


----------



## Tasia (Aug 17, 2009)

I had a great ride today Champ did everthing amazingly well! and I washed his tail!


----------



## savvylover112 (Jul 17, 2009)

Okay well since I said I hope to have a good ride better update you guys on how it went now lol 

Well on Tuesday I had a lesson with an instructor I had never had a lesson with and one of my mam's friends. Well we worked on trying to calm Phoebe down as she has been rushing into the jumps lately and every time we went for the jump after our nice and calm warm-up she would try to take off again so we worked on circles and calming back down again and she did so well and I was so so so so so happy with her 

Okay on to today's ride. Well I took Phoebe round the road to my friend's place to ride in the arena. We just did trotting poles and stuff to reenforce what we did on tuesday about being calm with poles and jumps and stuff. Then we started the canter and jumping work. Phoebe did so much better today than on tuesday didn't rush to the fence once. We eventually jumped 1.25m and I was so happy with her for going over it I am so proud of my little horsey


----------



## dressagebelle (May 13, 2009)

Well, I didn't have a good ride, but I did have a good training session with my new mare. She's 4, and very much a drama queen, and I haven't been able to do very much with her. The other day I got her out, after a while of working with her to let us put on the lead rope (she doesn't like the lead lol), and then walked her down into the barn, where after a few minutes of aquainting herself with the new surroundings she stood like a champ while I spend a good 30 minutes or so working the huge knots out of her mane, and managed to walk out of the barn pretty calmly even with the stallion freaking out because she was there. Then yesterday I went out, and figured I would have another chunk of time working to get the lead rope on, but literally 5 minutes after walking into her stall i had the lead rope and chain on (not a big fan of chains, but she needs manners badly, to the point of being dangerous without a chain as she has no respect for just the halter), and was able to walk her around. She did end up throwing a hissy fit when she saw the two chickens that had managed to get out of their pen, but she walked like a normal horse to her stall, not prancing, no arab tail, no snorting ect. Made me quite happy. I'm gonna give her a couple days off, just so that she isn't being pushed too hard, but I'm very pleased with how she's doing.


----------



## Team Penner (Nov 14, 2009)

My son and I went on a three day camping and trail ride trip with our horses at Mammoth Cave National Park. Gas = $50, Campsite = $60, Stalls = $40, Riding with my son and making memories = *Priceless*!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## horseluver2435 (May 27, 2009)

Excellent ride tonight- lots of sitting trot= collected canter. Rainy was actually being somewhat focused!


----------



## WesternGrl10 (Nov 29, 2009)

One time I went on a trail ride at this French barn that rode Western. I got a white shetland pony. I found a huge pasture and we loped for 30 minutes straight. It was the best ride ever.


----------



## ridingismylife2 (Nov 4, 2008)

I had a great lesson again today. 
I got to ride Bentley again and he was much calmer. His canter is the most comfortable i have ever rode and his jump is really smooth.
We had a couple bad jumps at the beginning because he's so sensitive and the lightest tug makes him tense up, so then I just let him do his thing and totally got out of his way. He was amazing!
I love him! <3


----------



## reveriesgirly (Aug 17, 2009)

western girl - dont you think 30 minutes of loping is a bit much ? in the hour i ride on saturday and sunday and wedenday and fridays , i only lope 10 minutes of the time , walk 20 and jog 20 , and then walk the horse down until hes cool


----------



## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

Okay, my turn!! I had moved my horse to a new barn recently. Unlike the former barn, they feed him all the hay he can eat in addition to his grain, so he's finally filling out and feeling really good. Today, I asked for a nice trot and got the prettiest, most round trot he's ever done. He was totally using his back and propelling from behind instead of plodding along on his front legs. Also, for reasons I cannot figure out, suddenly cross rails and low verticals seem incredibly small. Out of nowhere, we're now jumping 2'3" without any issues. We're new to jumping as a pair, so that's a big deal for us. I guess now that's he's using himself better, it just makes jumping much easier for him and more smooth for me. Don't know...don't care! It's fun!


----------



## DarkEquine (Aug 29, 2008)

I had a great ride last month (when I was able to ride - before my knee reconstruction) when I FINALLY mastered leg yield and collected canter on our intermediate horse Rory; who's the type of snobby, stubborn but educated man who'll MAKE YOU WORK FOR EVERY INCH!!! :evil:

He was lugging and pulling and leaning on my hands, and refusing to move forward unless I literally cramped up my calf muscles up, but then, I managed to tweak the reins in just the right combination, combined with the right amount of leg pressue, and it. just. worked!!! He fell in beautifully to line and lightened up like a cloud. I brought him on a circle and managed to keep him on it with just leg pressure and the slightest rein tweaks!! I was sooo happy afterwards, but soooo exhausted!!


----------



## IheartPheobe (Feb 15, 2009)

This was last weekend, but I forgot to mention it.  
Last weekend, Rog and I hadn't ridden since Wednesday.. I was a little worried about what the time off might do. We rode with a different instructor than usual, who I usually don't like.. It was a dressage lesson, so at least I didn't have to worry about his crazy taking off when we were jumping. 
Well, at first we were doing pretty simple things. (Trot down the center line, change direction) He was really good!! So the instructor (who knows my pony pretty well) had us do some trotting poles. She was pretty wary ("Make sure he trots! Think slow! Think SLOW!") .. but he was perfect!!! ♥ So we started doing some figure eights, and then cantered on the rail. Best cantering work I have *ever *gotton from him! EVER! So slow, smooth, perfect!!  
So later we did cantering figure eights with a simple lead change.. this got him excited. So he was going fast but I still got him to trot and switch leads and everything. <33


----------



## savvylover112 (Jul 17, 2009)

I had the best ride ever last night. It was mine and Phoebe's first time back showjumping in a competition. Last time we were jumping she was rushing alot and a bit uncontrollable because of my riding habits, and yesterday we just clicked and did so well it was our first clear round of the league  Sadly no video footage  lol


----------



## ridingismylife2 (Nov 4, 2008)

I had a good lesson again today. 
We had a flat lesson and I rode Maestro (who I used to jump) and we worked on slowing down/ stopping with our seat and on cantering on the wrong lead.
I got him to go on the bit really well and I love riding him on the flat.


----------



## Kashmere (Nov 30, 2009)

Today I made my first step to facing and overcoming my fear of horseriding! 
It was a scary but good experience!
Next week, I'll be back!


----------

