Trails, bareback, and trotting

Wednesday Steve and I went on a pleasant trail ride. Ollie did fantastic! It was a short ride, maybe 20 minutes.. but I think it was a nice first trail ride. It was pretty windy and we were riding through a pine forest.. so there were many opportunities for her to spook but she did good! I did have draw reins on her for precautionary reasons. I had them so loose that she couldn't tell I had them on, and I didn't have to use them at all. If she would have spooked and tried to bolt, I would have been able to pull her head around a lot easier with the draw reins rather than normal reins alone.

Before the trail ride, I did some more trotting work with Ollie. She's still stopping in certain spots in the arena. It's probably something that I'm doing.. like I'm anticipating her stopping, so I move my seat or grip the reins or something. I'll be sure to be cautious that, that isn't the case. 

Last night I got on her bareback! I think she was a little unsure at first, but quickly relaxed. We worked on steering, and stopping. She can feel my seat deepen a lot easier bareback, to help with her "whoa". 

Since yesterday we only rode for maybe  7-10 minutes, and it was a very easy ride, I'll count that as an off day. Today I'm going to (try) to ride her and work on the trot. Saturday I think Steve and I are going to go on another trail ride.

I'm going to take a second look at a boarding place tomorrow. They have an indoor, outdoor, and a large round pen. There are also places to ride, but I don't think there are legit trails. The guy is buying the property on the 11th, and if I decide to move there I can move in on the 12th. But, the old owner had this place looking like shit.. and the new guy says he is going to fix it up. I want to make sure of what all he is going to do before I commit to moving there. I don't want to have to move my horses somewhere, and just have to move them in a month again. 

Here's an old Ollie pic for ya!

  Hehe, silly face girl!