First of all, to anyone reading this, you should know this blog will be the ongoing story of my adventures in bringing my 4 year old Kentucky Mountain saddle horse along as not only a trail horse, but as a competitive trail horse and as an endurance horse.
I got Santana last spring, as a 3 1/2 year old with 30 days of "gait" training. We live in the low desert outside of Phoenix, AZ, so, think hot. Very, very hot. Santana came from the high country, and still had a heavy winter coat, which, he couldn't shed fast enough. But, what this really meant is, I just brought home a young horse that I wouldn't be able to think about working with till the weather got under 100 degrees, 5 months or so away.....smart, eh?
Well, during the summer Santana learned how to BACK out of a trailer, and he learned that afternoon showers were in fact, a thing of beauty, NOT a form of torture as he had previously thought. When it is 118 degrees outside, that shower felt goooooood. And a haybag to go with it while he dried??? This must be the spa, right?
By the time September rolled around it was time to start Santana on some basic training...learning to yeild all four of his legs independantly, and oh yea, what "Whoa" means. He was a very quick student, and he learned his lessons fast, tho his attitude in the pasture or arena was that of "this is soooo dumb. I'm bored."
Once I was confident that the little guy was ready to go out on the trail (did I mention he had to learn "whoa?") I had to work up my nerve to actually DO this. You see, while I am an experienced rider, all the horses I have previously owned were at least 10 years old with lots of experience. I have never started a horse myself, and I am a slightly timid rider until I am confident in the horse. Santana is just 4 years old, barely started. No trail miles. What was I thinking????
I got Santana because, true to his breed description, he was calm, calm, calm on his test ride. He didn't really know anything, but you could saddle him and get on him. I thought I could work with a young hors that was THIS calm and quiet.
So, I reminded myself of WHY i got him, and told myself to just put on my big girl panties, and take him out. I found a friend who was willing to go out with me on her experienced, quiet mustang mare.
Sooo, off we went. And you know what? He was a very good boy. He took the lead, as he is a gaited horsewith a long stride, the mustang wasn't walking fast enough to suit his needs. We would circle back around to pick her up, and off we would go again. I put him behind her on occasion, and he was fine with that, though he really would rather have been able to go faster, but he was good with it. I took him away from her, out of sight. He was fine with that too. His biggest concern seems to be "what's over the next hill? Funny, thats my question all the time too. I think we ware cut from the same cloth....Then it was time to turn around and go back to the trailer. Oh. really? Santana did not want to go back. He kept stopping or tryingto turn around and go further up the trail. Hmmm, good problem to have with an endurance prospect! . He wouldn't even follow the mare back... as far as he was concerned, she could go back, but he was gonna keep going up the trail. I actually had to cut an iddy-bitty switch from a creosote bush and tap him on the shoulder to get him to go back. This trail was very simple, god footing and clear. Not very challenging, but great for a first ride. He didn't look at anything, ever. He was calm, and just walked on....I was a proud momma!
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