Sunny is a 9 year old (2007 model) blue roan Kentucky Mountain Horse gelding. He has a very nice build for endurance, good substance but slight enough to have great metabolics. And amazing rock hard mountain horse hooves!! He is almost a complete mix between Rogan and Poptart, very sensible, but also athletic with a little extra 'go'.
My friend Wendy has had him since he was a yearling. She started him under saddle and has given him a solid foundation and lots of trail experience. He even went to both Old Dominion and Ride between the Rivers this year. He has lived the ideal natural life of a horse, out with a herd on large mountain acreage. He is used to the elements and knows how to take care of himself.
I met Sunny and Wendy last year when I was starting to condition Poptart and we have ridden and conditioned together ever since. I knew Sunny as a reliable horse that would lead the way when Poptart need support, managed the Old Dominion trails barefoot, but still had some opinions about being left by other horses or wanting to go a little bit faster. Mostly I didn't pay much attention to him as I was focused completely on Poptart (Riding Poptart did not allow room for focusing on other things!)
After I came to the hard conclusion that Poptart and I were not suited, I thought I should ride Sunny at least once when starting to look for a new partner. Wendy had recently listed him for sale and was looking for an endurance riding partner for him. As we rode together all the time it was easy enough to switch horses and take a test ride. I didn't think I would like him, I thought he would move heavy and clunky like Rogan. I wanted a light sensitive horse like Poptart, but just a tad less reactive and spooky. I fell in love with Sunny.
He was so sensible that I immediately felt confident in him. We rode through some nasty briers, he plunged through and I lifted my knees up high off the saddle and he took care of us. When he looked sideways at farm equipment he trusted me that it was okay and we walked right passed. We trusted each other. He had an easy 4 mph walk and then we trotted and it was quite nice and smooth. Then we cantered and it was earth-shattering, I have never ridden a canter like that - it felt as if I were on a porch glider-type rocking chair. I was sold, hook- line-and-sinker, then and there! And that is not even mentioning the effortless 11 mph downhill trot! (I think Wendy was quite ready to switch back after experiencing Rogan's well-behaved, but out-of-balance washing machine style canter!)
After a few more test rides and checks, I picked Sunny up on my way home from returning Poptart (talk about bittersweet). I kept Rogan in the stall so they could meet safely with a thick wall between both horses.
After the initial squeals and a minor kicking match they are good friends. Rogan seems fascinated that he cannot push Sunny around with just a dirty look.
Today I went out in the field at least 100 different times, each time trying a piece of tack on Sunny or measuring him for new tack, and each time he got a rub and a bit of carrot. He has an itchy spot he likes scratched on his stomach and is now looking forward to me coming to visit him. I trimmed his feet and he was amazing for that too (thank you Wendy!). He stood ground tied in the barn aisle and politely lifted each hoof for me to rasp. Most of Poptart's tack is going to fit (yay!!) even including 1 pair of hoof boots.
We played in the arena with Missy and Rogan for a few minutes this afternoon too. It was wonderful to start to see Sunny come out of his shell as he became more comfortable with me. Initially he wasn't comfortable enough to stand and just chill, he wanted to walk and move his feet. I am quite accustomed to that so we went to work walking around the arena and introduced our baby shoulder-in/lateral disengagement. This seemed to baffle him, he tried very hard but kept moving his shoulder into my personal space when he turned. It took me a minute, but I realized he just didn't know how to readily bend the lower 1/3 of his neck under saddle/in-hand (obviously he can bend it just fine in the field to bite a fly). So I just moved right along to gently asking him to bend and release his neck laterally on each side (very gentle bodywork/stretching exercises). It didn't take long before he stretched out his neck and gently curved it around; he is definitely stiffer on the right side (I think it was the right side). After that he quickly started to understand the beginnings of lateral disengagement in-hand. We also introduced shifting his weight back and then stretching his neck down and forward.
Sunny seemed to think the best part was standing on my basic platform and getting a cookie! It didn't take long before he was offering to stand on things all by himself and following me like a puppy. We kept it simple as I didn't want to scare him at all in our first session, I wanted him to look forward to next time. I loved the ears forward, gentle inquisitiveness I was getting with him, it was so much fun!
I hopped on bareback for a bit, and just walked around the arena and introduced the same lateral disengagement while riding. As earlier he was stiff in his lower neck and preferred to pivot on his front foot rather than step under himself and bend. This did improve each time and we stopped and stood quietly chatting with Missy until Sunny lowered his head and sighed with relaxation.
The best part was after putting the horses away and feeding I went inside. Rogan was shut-in the stall while they ate so he doesn't take Sunny's food/vitamins. While inside I heard galloping hoofbeats, a loud whinny, and saw a blue-black blur running through the field. I ran outside immediately, not sure what happened as Rogan was still shut-in the stall. I called to Sunny and he saw me, spun and came running. I directed him back to the barn where all was okay. I think he 'lost' Rogan as he must have expected Rogan to follow him out into the field. I love that after just a single short session together he looked to me for comfort and safety.
Here's to the beginning of a wonderful partnership and many years and miles of trail together!
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