Mini Vacation...Or Horse Lesson?!

After DD's off and on runs this summer the Hubby and I decided we wanted her to go spend some time with the gal who owns the ranch we bought Krissy from. The ranch we bought her from is Dynasty Equine and the gal who owns the ranch is Fallon Taylor who is a multiple time NFR qualifier and champion Barrel Racer. The first time she qualified for the NFR she was just a wee 13 years old and she was ranked 2nd place amongst women who were twice her age! So we decided we would take us a little vacation to TX and take Krissy (DD's horse) with us!


We arrived there late Wednesday night and got Krissy all settled in her stall before we made our last hour trek to the Hubby's sisters house. Thursday afternoon we had our appointment with Fallon and her assistant Haley to see what DD could do to tweak her runs (I guess I should add here that when we bought Krissy Fallon was out of town so she never seen DD ride). As soon as DD mounted Krissy and took off at a trot Fallon turned and looked at us with eyes the size of granny smith apples and said "WHOA I didn't realize she KNEW how to ride, I'm gonna have fun with her and teach her lots"!! Fallon and Haley were both so impressed with DD's seat and just how well she handled herself on the horse, they asked how long she'd been riding and Fallon said if she "could only have 25 riders with DD's skill for lessons her job would be SO much easier" LOL!! *Proud Mommy here*!!


Fallon had DD trot the pattern so she could see where her hang-ups are. First off she noted DD grabbing her reins with both hands to quick after making a turn, so they worked on one hand on the horn and one on the rein. We talked about this issue and have determined that the reason DD is doing this is because of riding Pete, he was such a manual horse she had to use everything to turn him and she's just not tuned to riding barrel trained horses. The first time she pulled out of barrel 3 the way she's "supposed to" the look on her face was CLASSIC!! The power that they pulled was awesome and she was having a blast! Fallon went over a lesson plan with DD to use at home for about 3 weeks and then we will step it up a notch.


So after her lesson she was pretty stoked and talked the girls' ears off! They were so sweet to ask her if she wanted come back again before we went home to ride again, even if it was the day we left. They planned to just throw her on one of their horses and spend some time practicing her next step.

The dirt was really deep around these barrels!


Friday we took the family to Six Flags so we didn't make it up to the stable to see Krissy. We had originally planned on coming home Saturday but the family wanted us to stay and have a barbecue and swim party Saturday night, so we decided to stay until Sunday! So Saturday we went back on the hour drive to see Krissy and have DD ride again. When we arrived I went to pull Krissy out of her stall and was horrified to find her with her eyes swollen shut...I will post on that tomorrow.


I pulled Krissy out and proceeded to flush her eyes out and Fallon asked DD if she wanted to come ride a couple of their horses for a video she was shooting (she makes youtube videos of all of her horses for sale), DD was elated and practically ran out to the arena LOL!! I did not get to see everything that she was doing but Fallon said when they came back in that DD had a better lesson than she could have hoped for and she rode a power-house of a palomino on the barrels and had a blast!

This is a video of Fallon, DD, and Haley riding Postman! He is an AWESOME 5 year old gelding.



This video is also of Fallon, DD, and Haley riding Fred who is a grandson to Freckles Playboy!