Saturday, December 11, 2010

Ride the Horse Shoot the Gun


Please don't misunderstand me; I like to canter and gallop and enjoy the speed of the thing, but it's a foolhardy business if the horse isn't controlled. After all, who wants to come off at some ungodly speed?

With that in mind, we took a step back with JB and rode in a small pasture around an improvised arena (buckets), concentrating on turning to the right, circles, serpentines and going over ground poles. It was mostly at a posting trot - then more of the same the next day, but in a larger pasture which is home to a small herd of mares. Used natural obstacles, thorn trees, and JB did alright, despite a tendency to duck out and attempt a bolt to the other horses.

By the end of the ride she was listening and responding well, so I rewarded her with a couple of uphill canters to the herd. She didn't seem entirely sure as to why she had been so keen to get there when she arrived, beyond taking the opportunity to try and kick one of her colleagues - but that was an afterthought.


Ride over, it was time for some target practice; reasonable shooting with iron sights at around 75 yards, though the wind was high. Seem to have developed an ironic tendency to pull to the left. Must correct that.

Cheers,

LSP

7 comments:

LSP said...

Thanks for the plaudit - my eyes aren't what they used to be either; makes shooting a little "guessy." Don't want to rely totally on optics though.

Anonymous said...

My eye's aren't not what they used to be either so your not alone.

Whitetail Woods Blog / Deer Hunting and Blackpowder Shooting at it’s best.

LSP said...

Thanks Rick! Good thing the primary focus is on the foresight...

God bless.

Silverfiddle said...

I got my son into trap and skeet this year along with some friends and their sons. It's remarkable how easily the young men took to swinging on those clays.

A older guy stated the obvious: "They can see 'em better than we can!"

All Seeing Eye said...

What a fantastic day or two that sounds like! Life as it should be...

darlin said...

Woah, that's some impressive shooting LSP! While I was taking my photo today you came to mind, I'll post it later on. Hopefully you'll get a chuckle out of it if you'd like to check it out. :-)

LSP said...

Well done on the skeet, Silverfiddle - hours of enjoyment. I keep thinking that there must be exercises to strengthen vision...

It was a good couple of days ASE - country + horse + gun is almost always a good result. Speaking of results, very impressed here by your Manatee campaign.

Thanks Darlin, sometimes the shots line up... will check out your pics!