First Solo Ride With Jazz

Well bit the bullet and decided today was the day to quit putting off what needed to get done. Took my Mare Jazz out for her first solo ride. Now that I'm old......er the fact that I could be seriously injured or worse tends to cross my mind more often than it did when I was in my 20's 30's and early 40's. As a reminder as to things that can happen,( getting bucked off) all I have to do is feel what I call the divet in my head or the ache I still get in my once broken collar bone, or even the huge extra thigh I pack around on my right leg.....Ok enough of that I'm getting far afield of my post. Anyhow caught my girl and proceeded to our routine. I have to do everything different with this horse, not to get too far away from our ride, Jazz came back from her trainer as a 4 yr old with unexpected issues which I won't get into, suffice it to say she can have soundness issues along with some other stuff . So this is what we do before every ride. I apply these essential oils to various different locations, DiGize on her belly just ahead of her teats, as she gets a bit uptight with the whole riding thing and acts like she has a belly ache....seems to work and she likes it. Aroma Siez along her Gaskin all the way to her fetlock, both legs. Peppermint on both Hocks and Release on both sides of her neck along with a massage. Jazz's body is so out all the time, you should hear her neck cracking and popping when we do the neck stretches.

 

 After we are done with the oils it's off to the round pen to loosen up and get rid of the kinks. Yuk bad pic, she is not downhill the ground is higher at her butt end. She's feeling good at this point.

So saddled and ready to go. It started to rain so I put my slicker over the saddle, Jazz wasn't too bad about it. A month ago this horse would have been beside herself jumping and twitching...good job Jazz....just a few little twitches.

 

 

So down the road we go to get to the trail, we were both a bit nervous I'd say and I have to admit my hand kinda hovered close to the horn.......which I seldom use and I do mean seldom. After we got by all the different horses and one rotten dog we made it to the trail, by then I could feel her relaxing a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at her ears, pointed in the right direction all the time. She's engaged, she 's interested and she just plain likes it. Riding this horse is becoming a real treat, we still have a long way to go and a lot to learn but at least I know she's willing. At this point in the ride we were both pretty comfortable. The sun had come out so I was getting a bit warm and wanted to take my coat off....my noisy coat

( which this horse is afraid of) I slipped one arm at a time out and tied it around my waist, what a good girl just a few twitches. We rode for about an hour or a bit longer( got cold and put coat back on just a few twitches) had a few spooks, she tends to spook in place, quite manageable.....whew cause boy I can't stay on like I used to. We headed for home and she was just as consistent as she was leaving.

 

 

We had a bit of fun with the retard dog on the way home(it is just a pup....an annoying pup) It figured it was pretty brave barking and lunging at us as we went by.

 

 

 

 

It came running up behind Jazz so I spun her around which she does really well and put the run on it.....not so brave anymore....that was good for a chuckle. So we made it home with nothing bad happening, it was a great ride. I'm very pleased with this Mare. Shirley Nicholas you can be proud of the horses you have put on the ground, good minds( minus bad training practices) fast learners, good dispositions and pretty easy on the eye. We had one little glitch( I'm pretty sure Jazz thought it was more than a little glitch) and no I didn't get a picture. We were coming up the hill to the tack shed and I was about to open the gate when curious girl decides to reach out and see what this is.

 

 

Well it sounded like a firecracker went off poor thing had stuck the soft part of her nose on the electric fence ( it is a good one) holy crap airborne ...almost went over backwards....all four feet off the ground!!!!Eyeballs popping out of her head.....poor girl we had such a good outing right up till then. Took a minute or so to get her to go through that gate.....had to do a bit of soothing and of course she's looking at me like I tried to kill her or something. It's a little hard to explain to a horse that it's her own fault, anyhow if it hadn't been for that it would have been almost the perfect ride. Wow that turned into a book....sorry hope it wasn't boring. Looking forward to the next ride....minus any electricity lol.