Butters. Concho.

I rode Butters today. Butters is a draft cross in training at the Ranch. He was sent here when he was first broke and is back again for some training. It's pretty clear no one has done a lot with him since he was last here. I started out doing some groundwork. Mindy, the owner of the ranch, came out and gave me a lesson on him. She gave me some really helpful tips on ground work. Instead of driving with the outside hand I need to use more leading hand and have them going off of feel. Also, I stop moving my feet after I get the hind end and need to continue to ask for the front and keep moving to the hip. After the ground work I got on and really worked on getting the reigns connected to the feet so that they mean something. Butters is the kind of horse that you can get to go really nicely if you know how to ride him, but if you don't have it all together he is kind of a mess. He is sensitive, but only when you have him with you. Mindy said fewer horses have frustrated her more than Butters... and I understand why. He has a bit of a thick skull and it takes him awhile to get the message across. It was even more challenging to me when my timing was not spot on. When you ask him to trot he can get so heavy and barrel around, so it is really important to get his hind end over. However, he is really not all that interested in work, so keeping him steady is another thing in itself. Honestly, I learned a lot in that lesson, but I can't recall most of it. It was all feel and watching for little things.

Today I rode Concho. He is a quarter horse who is pretty much the most amazing QH I have ever sat on. When people think of quarter horses they think of these horses who are built downhill and can not do anything. They are so wrong. Quarter horses kick butt. This horse can pick up so well, and do a better leg yield than half of the warmbloods I've ridden. I warmed up a little bit in the ring and then headed out on the trail. In my warm up I got his hind and his front, and did some w/t/c. After that we headed out on a trail ride through the prairie. We worked on some counter canter and shoulder in on the trail. He had a lot of energy and needed to put it to good use. We did a look around the cattle and made sure all of the fences were up. Pretty good ride over all, and I'm very glad I got to ride this guy!