holly_evolving (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
holly_evolving) wrote2012-04-11 04:53 pm
holly_evolving) wrote2012-04-11 04:53 pm
Ellie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesian_horse
Ellie is at least half Friesian. She is magnificent. She looks like Frollo's horse from the Disney version of Hunchback. She's all shaggy from winter growth, and her mane and tail are fabulously luxe. She's 16 hands (five feet four inches - a hand is four inches) at the withers (shoulders). Her feet are like dinner plates! Most horses go "clop clop clop" when they walk. Ellie goes "thud thud thud."
She's about 18 years old and came from a resort in the Poconos where she was a trail horse. She has very minimal experience in the ring. Last week, the instructors were not ready to let a kid ride her. But I got to! She's very alert and curious, not nervous or overwhelmed by her new situation at all. She seems to know what "good girl!" means, which was handy in telling her when I liked what she was doing.
The barn got her and two other horses from the same place at the same time, so she gets to share her paddock with her pals, which I'm sure is helping her to adjust to her new life.
She trots FAST! So fast I actually had to slow her down a bit! Which means that I was not sore at all from posting on her. I felt great! I had to crop her just once for veering away from the rail (she was ignoring me steering), and after that she did not ignore me. She still veered a little here and there, but all I had to do was put some pressure on the rein and she lined back up.
Her seat and her gait both feel like they were designed for me. I love riding this horse.
She started out pausing to look outside each time we rode past the door, and by the end of the lesson, she was going right past without stopping to look for her friends. She was good while I tacked her down, and she walked nicely when I led her back to her paddock, even though I could feel how excited she was, with her friends running up to see her.
Ellie is at least half Friesian. She is magnificent. She looks like Frollo's horse from the Disney version of Hunchback. She's all shaggy from winter growth, and her mane and tail are fabulously luxe. She's 16 hands (five feet four inches - a hand is four inches) at the withers (shoulders). Her feet are like dinner plates! Most horses go "clop clop clop" when they walk. Ellie goes "thud thud thud."
She's about 18 years old and came from a resort in the Poconos where she was a trail horse. She has very minimal experience in the ring. Last week, the instructors were not ready to let a kid ride her. But I got to! She's very alert and curious, not nervous or overwhelmed by her new situation at all. She seems to know what "good girl!" means, which was handy in telling her when I liked what she was doing.
The barn got her and two other horses from the same place at the same time, so she gets to share her paddock with her pals, which I'm sure is helping her to adjust to her new life.
She trots FAST! So fast I actually had to slow her down a bit! Which means that I was not sore at all from posting on her. I felt great! I had to crop her just once for veering away from the rail (she was ignoring me steering), and after that she did not ignore me. She still veered a little here and there, but all I had to do was put some pressure on the rein and she lined back up.
Her seat and her gait both feel like they were designed for me. I love riding this horse.
She started out pausing to look outside each time we rode past the door, and by the end of the lesson, she was going right past without stopping to look for her friends. She was good while I tacked her down, and she walked nicely when I led her back to her paddock, even though I could feel how excited she was, with her friends running up to see her.