Thursday, February 21, 2013

More trotting and a new goal

Siaga and I are trotting more and more every ride, though half the time he has ZERO sense of direction while riding the trot, mostly because he's focused on getting back to the gate so we can just STOP ALREADY, MOM! lol

Anyway, I think this Sunday Kathryn and I and a few other people at the barn are going to go on our first trail ride of the season. As long as the trails aren't total mudslop, Siaga should be perfectly ok with this, he actually has shown me to be a more relaxed horse on the trail than in the arena.

I've decided that I'm going to attempt to learn mounted archery. When I was a kid, I loved playing with my brother's compound bow and I had good aim with it. It's been a while but since I've borrowed his recurve and got some new arrows for myself, it's all coming back. So my goal with Siaga is tackless riding, which is what we've been working on in the arena, going at a walk/trot with minimal interference from my hands, and I've been accomplishing this by riding him in just his halter and bareback and carrying a crop to tap him into the right direction if he doesn't listen to my seat and legs before I go for the lead rope that's tied as his reins.

Not bad for being a little rusty at it still, eh? All three large holes in the box are from me. I hit it a few more times after that, but I admit most of my shots missed.