Happy Christmas Eve everyone! Given that we have holiday visitors/free babysitting, I jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of the nice weather and progress Gentry's skijoring training. Today we pulled a sled and Gentry was amazing about it. He didn't have a concerned about the sled and seemed to really enjoy himself.
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| Kid's snow sled, logs, and skijor tow rope |
I started out by loading up JR's sled with logs so that the thing wouldn't bounce around. I then clipped the carabiner end of my skijoring tow rope to the sled and held the other end in my hand. First I led Gentry around the paddock while I held onto the rope and pulled the sled behind us. This allowed me to asses if he had any issues with something "chasing him" or the sound of the sled on the snow prior to being mounted. Nope. No concerns whatsoever...beyond the treat filled contents of my pocket.
Many treats were dispensed during the course of this training session.
After determining that Gentry's usual easy going nature was indeed intact, I saddled up and decided to give it a go. You guys, I had SO MUCH FUN. I seriously love this horse and feel so grateful that he came into my life and has made riding/horse ownership fun for me again. Here are a few photos from the training session. Hubs was kind enough to pop outside and take a few action shots of us.
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| View of the sled from the saddle, while holding the rope. |
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| Awkwardly trotting uphill holding the rope. |
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| You can see how I ran the tow rope through the ring on the harness and held the open end in my hand. |
The only trouble I had was at the canter. My hands were pretty frozen from my death grip on the rope, so I kept accidentally dropping the rope whenever we cantered. The trot was do-able holding the rope, but certainly was a bit awkward. I am looking forward to when I have a live passenger clipped to the harness who can drop the free end and I only have to use my hands to ride my horse! If the weather cooperates, it looks like Christmas day may be our first ever skijoring attempt!
•Renee•
If you rode a western saddle you'd have a horn to tie the rope to. Or at least and Aussie saddle.And don't forget your bully straps on the horn.
ReplyDeleteBut alas I only own English tack. That is why I built the harness that the tow rope attaches too when I pull a skier. However, unlike a person the sled can't let go of the rope, so for training purposes with the sled I had to hold the rope.
DeleteGood boy Gentry! I'm excited to hear about the first skijoring attempt :)
ReplyDeleteSO COOL!
ReplyDeletethis is so awesome - Gentry seems to be doing really well with the concept!!
ReplyDelete