Zen the Mustang

Zen is jumping into the year of the horse with quite a bit of enthusiasm! Happy New Year to all ☺️

Very proud of Zen and a longtime student of mine, Victoria Wilson, for being the first one other than myself to ride him in THREE years! 😱 I believe that most horses should be able to be ridden by multiple riders (not any rider, but more than one), though with my inconsistency with being able to work Zen, I didn’t want to put someone on him until I thought he was fully ready.

Zen is a very good boy who’s never done anything dangerous under tack (my grand total of two falls from him in four years have been ba****ck and bridleless, one of which was our very first day ever cantering and the other was in a huge field without proper preparation, not at all smart of me 😅), but when he spooks, he can scoot rather quickly, and with such a tiny body, there isn’t much to hang onto! I know falls, or even near-falls, can decrease confidence in both people and horses, so I really wanted to minimize the risk of a fall or near-fall.

However, Wednesday was maybe the quietest he’s ever felt, so it seemed like a great day to try a new rider—both Zen and Victoria did wonderfully! Zen’s language is pretty specific, and Victoria picked up on it quickly and very little got lost in translation! Thank you to Victoria for being the first one in three years to give Zen a spin, and to Amy Skinner Horsemanship for giving Zen his under saddle foundation and keeping us progressing in our lessons!

I’ve been skimping on Zen footage! We’ve been up to plenty the last month, but I end up getting busy most times I think of posting something!

Zen and I have had a couple of rides and several groundwork sessions at the new place, and he‘s been great! I figured I’d share a little piece from one of my lessons with Amy Skinner Horsemanship, with a question—what do you think is happening in this moment, and happened just before? Answer in the comments 👀

Happy belated New Year from me and the sweetest teddy bear of a Mustang! His mane got some recent detangling while his tail (and a saddle that fits both of us properly; right now I make sure it fits him but I'm having trouble finding one that fits, me, too!) is a work in progress 😂