Navi and I finally did it!

5 or so years ago I set out with the plans on buying a baby horse and taking them from start to finish myself. In late Nov 2012, Navi came home as a 1 1/2 yr old blank slate. Flash forward to now. She turned 6 this year and yesterday we took our 1st "trail"ride with a couple other horses. I can't believe come November of this year I will have owned her for 5 years! Wow, time really does fly!!

To say this road has been smooth sailing would be a bit of a lie. Her and I have had anything but a smooth ride up to this point. Navi and I have not seen eye to eye a lot of the time. But I just had to learn to listen to her and go with the flow. All plans have been thrown out the window about a hundred times. I was planning on starting her lightly on trails at the age of 4, but then as we know she tried to cut her leg off. That was a year of healing and not knowing if she was going to even come back sound to ride. So we dabbled in the world of driving. (Which I do plan on still doing) It was decided she was sound for at least light riding so at the age of 5 we started under saddle training again. Except this time around, unlike when she was 3, she was not easy to ride. She started kind of throwing fits when I would get on her. I feel like I changed the way we did things 500 times in hopes of finding a non-stressful way of getting her going under saddle. She pushed my confidence to the brink and made me think hard of ways to find a partnership with her. More than once I said I didn't think she was ever going to be a riding horse. In fact just this year in early spring, my partner and I finally just said nope her being a trail horse isn't going to happen. I made the decision to just focus on riding Pixie and enjoying the summer. Navi of course would never leave us. She would always have a home with me, but I decided to take a break from regular training. We were doing well for the most part, but I had to find my confidence and desire to continue to try and push through this road block when it came to riding. I have always struggled to find my way with Navi cause she pushes my buttons. And lets face it I have always had an easy out as long as I have had Pixie around to ride. I didn't need to push myself. Well then Pixie came up lame again in the beginning of June. I had 3 choices: 1. Not trail ride 2. Buy another trail horse 3. Step up to the plate and just ride Navi. Here is how this decision was made. It was quickly decided I am already poor so another horse was out, lol. I could go the summer without trail riding, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I could also see if Navi and I could work this out and hopefully hit the trails. So it was decided it was time for me to just saddle up and ride her. I have great medical insurance, so heck why worry about it. I got my helmet and and last weekend I climbed aboard after months of not riding. I waited for the blow up, the rearing and or bucking. It never came...so ride two I waited again and it never happened. Then ride 3 this week. I pushed a bit more she got mad, pinned her ears, tossed her head,but never blew up. What happened here? Had I finally figured out how to connect with this mare and ride? Had I just gained my confidence and said the heck with it? I am not really sure I know the answer, but I do know I wasn't nervous one bit on her last night. I know I can ride and for the most part I can ride through a blow up. And well I have a helmet.

Why are all my horses slow??

So there we were on our 1st trail ride. We actually were out a bit farther from the barn, but I decided it was best to not take pictures and focus on my riding. Well up until the end when I couldn't resist. :) We rode over a bridge, she was perfect! We rode past horses in pastures that wanted to come see us, she did great! We tackled a tiny hill or two (really tiny) and she did great! I don't think someone could have ruined my excitement if they had tried really really hard. I could have cried when I dismounted at the tack room I was so happy! This moment was one I had waited for for a long long time. Our journey is far from over, we have so much more to do. And we will hit many more curves and bumps along the way while trail riding, but until then I am enjoying the moment.