I’ve had a little more time on my horses this month. Pepperoni, now a 3-year-old, is progressing nicely after a small setback from a stifle sprain. After treatment from Dr. Potter (who was kind enough to treat him on Christmas Eve so I didn’t lose another week of training), some rest and rehab, Pepper is back to 100%. We did lose about three weeks of training, which will make it tough for us to be ready for the Legends of Ranching Futurity in April. But I won’t push him—if he’s not ready, we won’t enter.
However, in the last week, Pepper has really surprised me. He’s such a fun horse to train—he’s very willing, but somewhat opinionated. He’s sensitive, athletic and wicked smart. If I could avoid making mistakes (nearly impossible on such a fast-learning horse), and just teach him one important thing every day, his training would go so fast.
At this moment, we are working on basics (forward and straight), collection at the trot (starting to think about it at the canter), shoulder-in, canter departures and pivots. I have not yet worked on stops and rollbacks, because of his stifle injury, but these maneuvers will be easy for him, due to his natural talent.
The Legends Futurity involves working cattle and this is where I run into a time crunch—I’ll have to get him working the flag before live cattle, and he’s not quite fit enough for that. But just in the last week, things seem to be coming together for us.
I am headed up to Colorado State University this week to substitute teach, and I will be taking Annie and Pepper with me. Annie will help me work with the colts (32 of them), and Pepper is going for the road experience and so I can continue his training.
It will be a fun week—I get to ride my horses every day, and I always enjoy working with college students!
Ready to Get Started on Your Riding Goals?
Spring is almost upon us, and my team and I are getting ready to tackle our goals for this year in earnest! It’s easy to set the goal and promise yourself that you’re going to work with your horse X days a week, or practice really hard to get ready for a big ride or competition. But it can be really hard to actually START—whether it’s Day 1 or Day 25. Life happens—we get busy, things come up, and we excuse away making ourselves and our horses a priority.
If you need a little extra encouragement and support to meet your goals, join my new #HorseGoals Or Bust Facebook Group! This is a community where you can come to share your goals and updates, find support through frustrations and set-backs, be a cheerleaders for others, and celebrate accomplishments. See you there!
