Riding Bareback in the Outback
Hi Y’all 🙂
So sorry I still haven’t gotten the (Tuck’s St. Aly one year) video to you. I’ve semi finished it multiple times and keep getting better pictures and figuring out different video tools and since it’s such an important one I want it to be just right before I send it permanently.
However, I have been riding every other day almost without fail the last 2 or 3 weeks and we’re doing great. Aly and I are both getting back in shape together, and Aly is getting his hay belly ( DON’T tell him I said it, he doesn’t have too much of one, but he’s got a little pooch :p ) worked off, and starting to look like a sport horse again.
The weather has been unbelievably gorgeous most of the time during the last few weeks. There were 2 or 3 days of 30 mph winds, a regular occurrence as Texas hails the coming of springtime, but other than that 70 degree days, totally blue skies, and perfect riding weather. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be mid 70’s and then we have a chance of small amount of snow on Saturday….that’s Texas for you, and back to 70’s the whole next week. We are very excited as the pastures, with faithful watering and care, are starting to have a green carpet coming out all over them. Aly is a little miffed frequently as we have two of his pastures blocked off, but I let him know that he will thank me when he goes in to a huge pasture of 5 inch fresh green grass in a week or so. He is Sooooooooooooooo happy about the green coming back.
Tuck's St. Aly has a special "friend"
One of my mama goats dropped a baby 3 days ago, and he is keeping a faithful eye on it in the nursery. The goat that dropped backed in January, that is shown in the picture, sitting on Aly’s baby, named Bitsy, is attached to Aly by the …um, ankle? They are constant companions, and even though Bitsy’s brother and mom live in the pasture with Aly and her, for some reason Aly and Bitsy just love each other the most. We have definitely decided that she will not ever be up for sale; it would break Aly’s heart. I mean it!
I’ve been riding bareback about 1 out of 3 times I ride; Aly loves it, and it’s a good thing to do when I don’t have as much time to tack up. It does amazing things for my seat and helps my leg position immensely. We’ve started jumping a tad, but as I’ve been somewhat tired lately, we’re going back to it gradually. Aly did a great job the last time I road, we jumped about 6 times; so my dad and I are going to build a few jumps, and as soon as I get the jump cups in, we’ll have some pictures of that. Almost every time we ride, we go out on the roads by our house, probably anywhere from 2 to 5 miles, and Aly is incredible. I can tell you without hesitation, it is his favorite, and when he sees the outside fence being opened for us to go out, the whole feel of his body changes. He is extremely well behaved outside.
Riding bareback improves the seat.
The time before last, when we went out, some neighbors down the rode, had a racehorse out practicing along the long stretch of loop about 1/3 of a mile from where we ride; Aly at first did not see the horse, but the other horse saw Aly. Woooo, that horse was so excited, and Aly did prance a tad, but I could not believe how well he behaved when I just looked at the road ahead of us and said, “um, silly boy, you’ve seen racehorses before, relax!” And he did. He has seen longhorn cows that are very heavy with calf come up to him, trash blowing along the road, a dog running by his heels, horses trotting by his pastures getting excited, a shotgun going off right next door, his stall door slamming from 50 mph winds when he was in his pasture, a sprinkler starting up while he was standing right by it, a dirt bike tearing up and down the street by his pasture and backfiring all the while, an ambulance and fire engine whiz past us with sirens going while out riding….you name it, in the last 3 weeks he has seen that and more. And I know he probably would have behaved well when he was at Bits and Bytes, but he is different now…way different. It’s not just that he tolerates all the crazy sounds and happenings while he’s quivering and being drama king deluxe. He is way past that, he just raises his head, blinks his eyes, and, stands on 3 legs as he continues snoozing.
Anyway….this reallly is not our 1 year story….I just wanted to update y’all; if you want to use this story, of course that’s fine, but I’d rather give you a more story-like email when I get the video done. I’m sending some of the best of the pictures we’ve gotten in the last weeks.
I have a lottttttttt more pictures, but as they are pretty big files from the pixel, they will be in the video that I upload, so that you can see them all that way. these are just a few.
Hope all y’all are doing well.
Hugs,
Aly&I
See more photos of Tuck’s St. Aly.