Psuntana back on the trail

Sunshine and 15 miles at Camp Far West

CFW with the Cows.

Barefoot and muddy, with maybe half the trails being decent, were the conditions at Camp Far West, and full of cows. Psuntana, who a year ago was scared to death of cows, and water, especially if it moved. Today he examined the mud puddles and the creeks and then trotted right through them, chased the cows and mostly trotted... Mosty trotted, that is so unusual, but I think the mud and the icky trails had something to do with that. I think what I was most amazed at were his working Heart Rate and his recovery. It was rare when he did not drop to 60, when stopping to open a gate, which only takes a minute or two. He did get a couple of runs in, but held lots in reserve.

All in all I was impressed, his attitude was good, he was always willing to move out when the conditions were good enough, he is very athletic and easy to ride. He seems like he will make a great endurance horse. We opened and closed the gates while mounted. He took a couple of passes, but he did much better then horses who have been doing it for years. Something to say for having a smart horse.

When we got back to the trailer, after about a 2 mile trot, he was down to 54 by the time I pulled the saddle, which was within 60 seconds...., not bad for a rookie. I put him on a 30 foot dog leash and let him graze the green grass in the parking area.

Looking forward to my next ride on Psuntana, he keeps a old man young.....

Lightning strike

Does Lightning strike twice in the same location??

I am having so much fun with this horse I can hardly contain myself. He is such a smart young man, and wants to please. He has yet to lean how to trot much, he goes from the stand still to a cantor. As I remember MONK did that when I first started riding him. I am just going to kept riding him and only ask for the trot when I think it is necessary and see how he progresses.

Psuntana is a great barefoot horse, not very big feet though, but very nice feet, nice wide frogs. Half of the time I ride him the gravel roads he only has front boots on. Most of the under saddle conditioning is done barefoot, we have great trails right now, nice and soft and not too muddy.

Psuntana just loves to run, he his a very easy horse to ride, he neck reins wonderfully, so when you are going Mach 1 you can easily direct him to a less rocky path.

If he gets scarred and decides to spin, you can stop him in a nano second, even in a halter. I ride him mostly in a hackamore.

He will do his first 50 in March and am sure he will be more then ready. When the weather starts getting better we will start doing a few 20 mile training rides.

My gut tells me that this little horse could be almost as good as MONK. He is much smaller, so will not have the stride, but so far his recoveries have been great for a green horse. I really really like this horse, he is keeping this old man young.

We will have to wait a few months to see about the lightning strike!!!!