# Riding Journal



## NavigatorsMom (Jan 9, 2012)

Yesterday when my friend and I went out to ride, it started pouring rain as soon as we got on. We thought it would pass so we went up to the arena and rode for a while. It didn't stop though. :-/ We ended up doing a short trail on our way back to the pasture. We were soaked, but it was a fairly painless ride for both of us. Navigator was very good for her.

Today was a little different. I'm always worried that she's going to ruin him when we ride together, because she doesn't have much experience and he's still kinda green. But he's the most beginner friendly horse we have at the barn, so there isn't really any other option. 

It wasn't a bad ride though. She did want to canter him from the walk, which we have only worked on once or twice, and she tried and actually got him to do it once, which was good I suppose. 

She just doesn't really know too much about horses, and every time they do something wrong, it's because the horse is onry or bad, and it's never the rider (her). *sigh* I guess she'll learn as she rides more and gets into more advanced stuff.


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## NavigatorsMom (Jan 9, 2012)

Did a lot of trot work to loosen up today. Nav seemed a little lazy and didn't want to get moving. I was able to encourage him and he did end up working quite well. Bending a lot better than usual while we trotted.

Canter was not so good. Left lead was very stiff and he didn't want to bend at all. Right was better. He was very speedy at the canter. After we worked a little more at the right I tried left again. He bent a little bit more but kept wanting to run. Will keep an eye on this and see if it was just a weird thing or if it's a soreness issue.

He was a good boy though.


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## NavigatorsMom (Jan 9, 2012)

Haven't posted in here in a long time! I hope that's ok to do since it's my journal thread...?

Anyway, I just had to post, I had an amazing ride with Navigator last night. I hadn't ridden in a while, and only had a short time to ride, so I just hopped on bareback and rode around in the field by his pasture. He was so good! 

A little fresh at first since we were in a big open area and it had been a while, but he quickly calmed down and framed up nicely. He had a nice forward trot and canter, but was listening and transitioned down without much trouble. We even did a little jump (just a log, no more than 18" I'd say). 

I was just so happy after that ride, and it really made me feel confident about us doing better in the clinic in a couple of weeks 

Tonight I'm going out to work on his feet with his owner. That should be good!


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