Vaquero was a little rough at first, and I worked to settle him into a nice largo. He gets a little excited sometimes at the beginning of a ride, and his normally smooth gait comes best to him after a warm up. I kept him in a largo while James rode Bullseye in a slow lope beside me.
When James picked it up to a faster lope, Vaquero's largo couldn't keep up, so I let him slip into a slow canter, still very smooth. The best part of riding Vaquero is that when you transition between the lope and largo, it's smooth. There is no jarring transition into a hard trot from a smooth lope, like in my QH Woody. On Vaquero, you just keep your seat, and everything feels under control at any speed transition.
At one point, we opened them up, and I had Vaquero at a full run (I later clocked him at 20mph using my GPS) and I was goosing him to see just how fast he would go. At that point, James and Bullseye came thundering up behind me and easily bested Vaquero's speed. Bullesye, the QH, definitely has another gear that Vaquero lacks. Still, I really enjoy Vaquero's smoothness, and I'll use that more than I will top speed.
The horses were panting for a good 10 minutes after the ride. And James and I grudgingly admitted to one another that the extended loping had left our abdominal muscles hurting. It was loads of fun...
2 comments:
I can just imagine you two tearing through those back yards. Seriously - does anyone else in your neighborhood go barreling through?
I'm picking up my horse Saturday and I'm going to try to pick a weekend for a long ride out on this woman's place. Give me a list of 3 weekends you could make a trip.
My neighbor told me he was out on his place one evening, and he heard the sound of thundering hooves. He looked up and saw 3 riders barreling through the trails, guns blazing to fire back on the marauders in hot pursuit.
OK, I'm kidding about the guns blazing thing, but I'm sure we get some attention when we ride hard through the trails! That particular evening, a friend of James was riding Woody, so we had all 3 horses, and the cacophany of hooves must have been impressive.
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