Wow Cindy, good job on the beach ride! It sounds like a blast. Hang in there with the group rides though. It'll just take practice for her to get used to riding with a group, but it sounded like you did a really good job in handling her antics. The worst thing you could've done would have been to let her get away with doing what she wanted to, just to keep up with the group. They really should have waited for you though. That was kinda rude on their part, and a little bit dangerous too, to just go off and leave you like that. If somebody's having troubles in our group, we don't just ride off, we help them work through it. Maybe if you ride with them more often you can buddy up with one or two riders and develope a regular riding relationship with them. In any case, we look forward to more beach ride pictures. Thanks for posting them!
I didn't want to hold them back. They were hooping and hollering and having a good time bumping into each other and cowboying it up. It looked like fun but I was uncomfortable getting her in to that, since I already had my hands full. They offered but seemed happy to move on when I told them that was ok. I got "checked on" a few times. I don't think SL knew what she wanted. The sand dunes scared her and set things up. Even when I was close to the group she didn't seem to be able to stand still and when I would cue her to move on she would fight me. Then she wan't to jig to catch up and didn't want to slow to a walk. Even whoas, which is her favorite part of riding was hard. I had to get firm with the bit. I think it was just new stuff. She didn't act like she wanted to be with the other horses but didn't want them leaving either. When we put her in the trailer she was still neighing to them. It was actually fun though and she did fantastic in some ways but I just don't know about this group thing.