Change of plans

It turns out I won't be selling Kazi (yet). 

When I moved back to the boarding barn I currently have my horses at, one of the stipulations was that I had to sign a 6 month contract. Saturday, a lady was coming out to check out Kazi and I told Sandy that they were on the way and she said "Oh yeah, I forgot to check the contract to see when you can move him." Basically telling me that I can't sell him until the contract is up. I mean, I understand that it's a contract and everything.. but, she should have said something about it weeks ago when I told her Kazi was up for sale.

Anyways, it's only been three months.. so April 1st our contract is up. Who knows if I will even put him up for sale at that time. Soooo, Kazi is stickin around for at least awhile! =D

Last week I was all about getting Kazi more comfortable on the trail. He was doing REALLY well out there before the lease started.. but, Danielle (girl who is leasing him) doesn't take him out so he is getting used to it again. Anywho.. in the past two weeks we went on 5 trail rides. 2 with other people, and 3 alone. The first ride he did pretty bad on. He got hyped up and was a little difficult to settle down. When we go out alone.. it seems to be a trend with him to get "spooked" at something in the middle of the ride and after he is over it he gets "peppy" for about five minutes then settles back down. With more miles I have no doubt that he will make a bomb ass trail horse! ;)

Last night Danielle was at the barn and we started talking about how he was doing for her. She had concerns about the bit she was using on Kazi and I told her to try the bit I bought for him (this was a few days ago). She said that he is doing much better in my bit and she's going to continue using it. She also said that when she is asking for the trot or canter it feels like he is rearing up a little bit. That shocked the crap out of me! But, I think what she is feeling is him resisting the trot/canter and half way starting to do it, then not following through with the transition. I got on him to let her see how it looks on the ground and we think that is what it may be.

All I did was a quick W/T/C, some backing, and worked on him giving to the bit. I was very pleased on how he did!

I ALWAYS catch Kazi with his tongue out! Here are FOUR pictures from like 3 minutes with it sticking out! Silllly pony!

 I hate how big his blanket is. Anyone want to buy it so I can buy a new one?! =D

Bones and I have been doing quite a bit of bareback riding. We had two bareback first today! 

This morning I hopped on him bareback with only a rope around his neck. He doesn't know leg pressure THAT well yet, so I did use the rope to help guide him. At first he ignored the rope completely. But after a couple of minutes he warmed up to the idea and started to respond quite nicely. We only rode for about 10 minutes. I tried to video the whole thing, but I when I set the timer on my camera I guess I forgot to switch it to video! Here is a picture from when I *thought* I was ending the video!

He looks so cute in his stable blanket that I wanted to take some pictures. I didn't put his halter on to go outside, just left the rope around his neck. 

On the way outside, Bones was kind enough to carry my Carhartt!

At first I tried to hold onto the rope and reach my arm out to snap the picture

 Then I put a little trust in him and just hung the rope over his neck

 "Come on woman, it's cold out here!"

 Then the rope dropped and he didn't flinch!

 We had to get both sides, so we turned around and starred at the barking dog (and he still stood perfectly still with a dog barking at him)!

 As we were walking inside, Bones shied away from the tractor:

 So I let him sniff it out:

 Getting more relaxed..

And now he's over it and saying, "Okay.. it's not so bad!".

 I wanted pictures with better lighting.. so we turned around and investigated it again:

 Relaxing..

 "Alright! You were right, I was wrong.. FEED ME TREATS NOW!"

Then I cleaned his stall, filled up his water, tossed him hay, put his stable blanket back on and he went back in the stall. 

I went back out this afternoon around 4pm to feed Bones and Kazi, but decided to ride Bones again. It was snowing fairly hard (and had been for a few hours) and for whatever reason.. I thought it would be a good day for our very first bareback trail ride! We just took a short 15-20 minute ride in the pinewoods. He did good.. spooked at one thing and got "peppy" on the way home. I was very proud of him when he spooked. All he did was get "catty" instead of jumping sideways as he used to do. If he had jumped side ways, I would surely would have fallen off! He has come a long way since 2009, that's for sure!

Can you believe Bones used to be like this!? =(