Adventures in 2007
This shot shows what a goofball AJ is at heart.
January found AJ down with a cold. After treating him for 2 weeks, the weather turned bad on us and that wrapped up our winter riding plans.
March showed us an awesome snowstorm that dumped about 12 inches of heavy snow. We had some pretty deep drifts in the field and pens. I decided to ride AJ bareback in the arena for a few minutes. Did some warm up with him and hopped on. Had him going through knee deep drifts and was expecting to get dumped on my head. He was a good boy and plowed through. I think he was having as much fun as I was. We ended on a good note and called it a day.
April & May had very few good riding days. I did get on a couple of times and he did awesome. He remembered many things that he learned while off at the trainers last fall. My favorite is to get him to sidepass to the the rail and then trim low hanging branches. He just stands there as branches and sticks are raining down on his head.
This past summer was either too wet, too humid or just plain ole too hot to ride. I did however get about 20 rides on AJ during the year. Some memorable rides were at Two Rivers State Park. The first time out, we got caught in a rainstorm and took cover under some trees. Unfortunately, the rain was getting heavier so we decided to make a run for the trucks and trailers. The 2nd time out he was designated 'leader' and he took that job very seriously. Had to check out every tree/bush/sandy area that we came across. I do like that he's learning to follow the trails and weave around and between trees. We had fun checking out our woods and doing some long trotting in the bean fields after they were harvested. Our last ride in the woods was after the leaves were down and I stuck him on a deer trail. We followed it a good distance, up and over logs, between tight trees and under brush. Only downfall with this boy is that he's standing over 16hh now.
I did train AJ to help haul the manure to the ravine this winter. We started out slow with him dragging a tarp and graduated him up to dragging a sled. That worked pretty slick for a while until the snow melted and we got a hard crust on top. The sled took on a life of it's own and would boogie down the hill! I didn't think it was a good idea to have him pulling it and then have it zip by fully loaded.
The weather turned cold and nasty towards the end of December but I was able to get some ride time in on him, bareback. He definitely needs to fill out some more by his withers but otherwise his back is nice and comfy.
2008 will hopefully see him out on the trails more since he has matured and grown into his long legs.
Check out AJ's past adventures