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Monday, April 5, 2010

Baby Face Zion- AKA big fraggle


Had a wonderful Easter weekend in Michigan! It was all about Ponies, Family and Fun. I rode on both days with my mom. Her on her trusty mare Olivia and me on Olivia's offspring Zion. I still cannot believe how different he is from Gramarye. He has a much more free in the shoulder, shorter back, shorter neck, short attention span, but still has that will to try. I started off the first day and things were not so great. He kept telling me to leave him alone. He would use himself properly for about 2 strides and then completely fall apart- head toss included. by the end of our first time out together, he stopped fighting and he came together quite nicely. By day two he was ready and willing to accept a new challenge. We worked for a bit on Tempo. He likes to run, and then slow way down. He really needs me to metronome for him, whereas Gram never had that issue. He is much straighter than Gram, she naturally wants to throw her butt to the inside. He likes to throw his shoulders to the inside, which become very apparent at the canter. He is at the point where he needs lots of balancing and re-balancing. The canter reminds me of those motorcycle races where the operator of the bike is mere inches away from scrapping their knee on the pavement.

The biggest accomplishment for him (and to my surprise), was when I asked him to leg yield for the very first time and he did it like an old pro. The video shows all our of amazement, and me not realizing he had never been asked before. The toughest part about riding Zion this weekend was having to leave him. The only thing that he and Gram have in common is they are both chestnuts and they both love of learning new things- everything else is completely different. So now I have to figure out a way to make a bunch of money so that I can afford the $ and time it takes to bring two horses up the levels!

In my excitement about riding "Baby Z", I sent pictures to Paige. Her comment about the still pictures: "I love this pic where you're saying something and petting Z on his neck, his face totally says fraggle rock to me that's what he reminds me of... a big fraggle"

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