PF - Test Drive

Last night DH and I went out to watch PF go. When we got there she was already saddled up in the round pen. We made out introductions to the owner and then headed over. DH was taken back by her similarities to Sis and we laughed as Chase said “that horse looks just like Sis”. Lol

The gal did a little bit of round pen work with her and explained that she really doesn’t do much ground work with her before riding. Just enough to make sure PF is paying attention to her. It was fun watching someone else RP as all of her turns were made to the outside. When she asked PF to move faster it took quite a bit of encouragement – she doesn’t want to loose anymore weight! Lol When she asked her to come to the center she did and then immediately dropped her head to graze. That is so Sis and it had DH laughing.

She showed how she’ll give her hips nicely when you look at them. I did this with her the other night and she did do very well. Then we headed to the “arena”. She had a bit of a problem taking the bit but the owner explained that her son had bumped her a time or two in the teeth with the bit so it was very understandable. She had her in a D ring w/rollers similar to a bit we use on Sis but she had it very low in her mouth (almost to the point of falling out). You could tell PF wasn’t happy about it being so low but she picked it up and held it anyways.

Through our conversations we learned that it had been since last August since PF had been ridden last and she hasn’t been loped once in the 2 years the owner has owned her. The owner got on and rode off and PF moved off quietly and calmly. At the end of the arena she started to nicker back to her buddies but kept moving. She walked her over a log and then bumped her up into a trot. It was a forward moving trot but not a fast one. We watched her ride for a while and then I got on.

Since the owner was short I decided to ride in her saddle. Those Tuckers are pretty comfy. Anyways – PF did well except she wanted to cut the arena. The problem with this was the tree in the far end where she wanted to cut was a thorn tree. Ouch! When she’d get to that spot she’d nicker and you could feel her want to speed up to get back to the other horses. I turned her in circles and put my inside leg on to see if she knew how to bend. Not really but she did soften after a little bit. She has an iron mouth compared to what I’m used to. I bumped her into a trot and it was pretty cozy. Would be a lot nicer if she’d slow down just a tad but that probably wouldn’t be hard to do.

PF was being good so I decided to push it and ask for a lope. OMG! She has one of the smoothest lopes. Like Black, she covers a bit of ground. She wasn’t upset at all that I’d asked her to lope and continued in a nice, relaxed lope until she had an excuse to stop (me talking).

After that DH got on and rode. She was a bit different for him but by this time she was pretty hot and sweaty. When I say different, it wasn’t really in a bad way. He was trying to neck rein her and she doesn’t and there were a few other times where I felt there was a miscommunication between the two.

Once we were done we watched her owner bath her and clip her. She did well but kept talking to her pasture buddies. She wanted to be back with them and you could tell.

I wasn’t in a very good mood last night so when DH asked me what my thoughts were I was probably a little rough on him. Told him she was a nice horse but she’s probably going to need some work and I wasn’t doing it. I kindly reminded him that I’ve trained too many horses for him that he’s sold when they weren’t “good enough” and I wasn’t doing it again.

I’m not sure what he’ll do, if he’ll take her out again, make up his mind from here or just forget about it.