~Meet Kat!

WARNING-horse topic ahead! 

Hey I FINALLY got some good pictures of Kat! I rode today and thought it might be fun to tell ya'll about it seeing as I haven't written anything real horsie lately.

For you who don't know much about Kat, we just got her this past fall, and soon after, she got sick for a while. So I couldn't ride her much, but now I'm trying to get to her. When we got her she was 8. As far as training went she had 30 days put on her as a 2 year old and hadn't been ridden since! But I right away felt very comfortable with her. She's pretty green but because she doesn't get worked up about much I tend to think of her as more of an older experienced horse. (Which she isn't!)

She's more of a light built horse which I'm really liking. I'm used to the more short and stocky quarter horses. I love wrapping my arms around her neck and it feels like your holding on to a foal because she's so delicate like. I don't know how tall she is exactly, somewhere around 14.2 probably. Maybe a little taller than that but not by much. 

She kinda has mule-ish coloring but I think she's gorgeous! For the pictures I had to have Jess hold her because she wouldn't just stay there! That is one thing I really need to work on: she was never taught to just stand and do nothing. Tacking up is a bit of a chore. OK she's not bad but I'm used to my horses just standing there. I guess I'm spoiled!

Anyway today Jess and I rode and it was beautiful out! As you can see I used my barrel saddle. I've had a hard time finding a saddle to use on her. My cutting saddle is way too big, so I've tried one of our trail saddles and I had a hard time staying sitting in that one. (Kat work so much off of your sitting postition, which is goo and bad. When I get out of place she comes to a screeching halt whether I'm ready or not!) Finally I just went to a barrel saddle. I rarely use them any more because they are so impractical for more of the working horse style. Rollbacks and sliding stops just don't go well with the high rise fronts! (Although barrel saddles do hold you in better than others, which is why I started using one on Kat.) The problem is with them is that they sit you in a forward position and our horses are trained with body language where you need to be sitting down and back more, not up and forward. 

I started out just walking mainly in circles working at bending and keeping her attention on me. She's been getting feed and weight builder lately and when I swung up on her I knew I was in for something. Just not sure what! She had more energy than I've ever seen her with, but she still behaved very well. After warming up a bit I rode her into the roundpen and started trotting around. She was more than willing to comply. Then I decided to get down to business and ask for a canter. I haven't done a lot of cantering with her yet so trying to keep her at a canter is sometimes a bit hard. I get as much of a workout as she does! Anyway I squeezed with my outside leg, kissed, and picked up the inside rein just a bit, and she took off! Crow-hops came immediately after and then a mid air lunge! Nothing real big or crazy like and I was expecting it so it wasn't a big deal. I pulled her in a tight circle and banged her with my outside leg a bit. (I don't use spurs with her right now so it was just my heel.) I wasn't rough but I wanted to make it plain and clear that behaving like that is not acceptable. I know she is green and inexperienced with a lot of energy at the moment, but she needs to still be shown what is right and what is wrong. There was a little bit more of that then next time I asked her to canter but not as bad. After a while she started evening out and didn't just bust forward as much! I'm happy with how she did and can't wait to ride her again. I just keep imagining the day when I'll be able to let anyone ride her. Which actually... probably... isn't that far off! Yay!