Yeowch! I decided yesterday that I was going to start working my aunt Terri's 5 year old mare Lilly, if only to help get my legs back into shape. Well, my legs are going to get a workout on Lil! She's been broke to ride since she was 2, but my aunt Terri really only wants to ride occasionally at a walk on trails, so Lil has learned to be laaaazy. On top of needing almost constant leg to keep the forward motion going (trust me, if I ever used that much leg on Duke or Adam I'm pretty sure I'd be floating somewhere by Mars!), she's a bit rough on canter leads since she's never really learned them. She seems to have the right lead figured out, but needs work on the left. the other big problem is keeping her going - I don't mind riding with a whip, but I hate having to actually use it for anything more than a very very light tap. I'm not hitting her hard by any stretch of the term, but I still feel guilty from the number of taps needed!
Lilly can (and will with little to no prompting) rack naturally, but I think she's going to be more of a hunter horse (Not enough neck, not enough motion, and I don't want to show against Fantasy or Toby :shrug:). She has nice bloodlines, and bred to the right stud I think she could produce great offspring, but she's still young: if I stick with it, and manage to get the tack and outfit, I hope to have Lil ready for the ring by August. Here's a few pics I took of her yesterday - sorry she looks so rough, but she normally lives in the outdoor-access stalls with our mini-herd of Hackneys.
As for Duke, he got a hair-cut today, and looks much more like the distinguished gentleman he is, rather than the large mountain goat he turns into in winter!
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