Cowboy Dan

Earlier this year (sometime in the summer), Jeff brought Daniel out to the barn to go for a little ride with me on Cody. Daniel was pretty quiet and content riding around in circles in the arena. And then we went to take him off the horse and he got upset. So I decided since he seemed pretty into it and I teach riding lessons to other people’s kids, why not start Daniel on some short lessons at least until it gets too cold to be in the barn.

So a few weeks ago we started heading out to the barn once a week and letting Daniel ride Axel. Axel has been lame now for a few years due to arthritis but keeping him moving is good for him. He’s been telling me he’s neglected lately by trying to climb in my pocket when I go out to get Cody. Daniel’s not heavy enough to make a difference on Axel’s back. So it seemed like a perfect match.
The first week we just had Daniel ride bareback but Axel’s so huge Daniel could hardly stay in the middle so I grabbed his little saddle for our future visits. The first couple rides Daniel made it for almost 10 minutes but our last few rides he’s only made it about 5 minutes. But considering his age I don’t expect him to have much more of an attention span.

He’s really catching on fast though. He tells Axel “GO” when he wants him to move and he’ll pick up the reins when we tell him to. Usually he holds onto the saddle horn with one hand (don’t worry, we’ll fix that when he gets a little older). Our only issue right now is that when the horse stops Daniel decides that he’s done and tries to get off. So thus some of our lessons are very short.

I usually have him help groom a little before he rides and clip the reins on the halter and we had him sweep the aisle after riding. You gotta learn all the chores not just the fun part ;)

On the up swing?

A week after Axel's last injection I ran out to the barn to check on him. N was out on Cody with Steele so I just grabbed Axel and we walked down the road. He's been almost sound at the walk on flat ground without a rider for a while now and I was a little disappointed to see he was the same a week following his injection.

A week later I got Jeff and Daniel to come out to the barn with me and we grabbed Axel to see how he was doing. He was a lot better, moving out quite a bit at the walk on flat ground. I brought him into the barn and picked out his feet and Daniel had his turn sitting on the big horse. Then I jumped on bareback for one lap around the arena, a very fast and sound lap at that! I'm trying not to get my hopes up but maybe he'll be sound enough for a walk down the road next week with Cody and Steele. I'm pretty sure we're not going to be trail riding ever again but if we can keep him sound at the walk without a rider I'm formulating a plan to take him to a lead line show with Daniel some day.

Daniel Meets the Boys

I took Daniel out to the barn last week to meet Nancy and the horses. The first time he was at the barn he slept through the whole thing. We put him up on Cody for a photo op. He was a little unsure of what was going on. I don't know if he was afraid of Nancy or of sitting on the horse but he almost started crying. He was interested in trying to pet Cody's nose but horses bite hard so we didn't let him get too close. Have I said I cannot wait until he's big enough to ride?

Still Alive

I'm still alive and so are the horses. We stopped out last week to bring Daniel out to meet the boys but only stayed for a few minutes, the bugs were pretty bad. Then last night we had a farrier appointment so I left the baby with his great aunt and ran out to tend to the boys. Their hooves were looking pretty beat up from stomping flies. N has been riding Cody down the road, the last few times with another horse, and it's been going well. Meanwhile I'm counting down the days until I can ride again, though after so much time off, Axel and I might spend quite a bit of time in the arena! I can't wait until Daniel can ride!