Enjoy some warp (Lacy) speed moments from a gorgeous snowy solo bareback ride to one of our favorite lookout spots with the princess Sunday morning before work. Solo ride in the sense that we weren’t ponying another horse, which is rare these days.
Original audio because hooves in snow and pony snorts are music to my ears.
She was on sick leave much of last year due to an injury sustained in pasture. Cedar has one of those currently also. Tiny is turned out with Griffin. He’s the best babysitter. Lacy is helping me work the training horses. She’s handy and a wonderful training partner.
Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustang Lacy is 9 this year, facility born to a Divide Basin WY mare, and on the…spicy side. The reason I can take her out by herself bareback in a halter on a crisp morning and gallop through the snow (keep watching) isn’t because I’m such a brave and talented rider.
Quite to the contrary. I’m on the careful side (read: a chicken) and 30 years ago when I was first starting out, my friends were literally posting the trot in circles around me by the time I finally figured it out.
I did put a strong foundation on this horse and I maintain it and build upon that. This same perfect mare was on crack or something along those lines that same night at 9pm when I decided to go ponying Gus off of her in the dark. Also bareback in a halter.
Gus is still pretty new to that, much less in the dark and with a helpful cat and two dogs underfoot, ducking under tree branches and activating motion sensors along the way.
Lacy might have liked to bite Gus or zip right out from under me. She didn’t. Only because I put money in our training bank every ride. That’s why the brakes work even when the engine is having a moment and why she’ll bend around my leg when she’d much rather launch herself instead.
All that to say that if I can gallop bareback in a halter through fresh snow on a spicy Mustang mare without feeling like I’m going to die, so can you. If that’s your thing anyway and you didn’t completely mis- or over-horse yourself.
There’s a whole lot of preparation, consistency (not consistent riding, she often sits for days, sometimes weeks at a time, but consistent rules when we do ride) and fine tuning involved, but absolutely zero magic. It’s a put in the work, reap the rewards kinda thing.
What are some of your favorite things to do with your horse?
