Double Dinah

Dinah has been coming right along in her training. She got her feet done last week and she also had a visit from the chiropractor. In addition, my friend Laura came over and helped me work on double longing with her.


Her feet look great thanks to her great farrier Darby! She was very good throughout the process, and her hoof health is improved. I was unsure about putting shoes on her at first, but now I am very glad that she has the protection of shoes.

The chiropractor said that Dinah looks great and has gotten a lot of muscle since she saw her last.

The double longing was a great skill to work on with Dinah. Thanks to my friend Laura for helping me with it! The way that we did it was we put a longe line through the outside stirrup and attached it to the outside bit. We also attached a longe line to the inside bit and Dinah was wearing side reins. This method of longing is really good because you can basically ride them from the ground, with an inside and outside rein, but you can see the horse so it is easier to make adjustments. It is hard to keep contact with both longe lines, but it definitely was helpful to keep Dinah from falling to the outside and to help with her balance. When I rode the day after we double longed her I could feel a difference, especially tracking right, her more difficult direction. A great training tool I would like to practice more.

Last Friday I took Dinah on a big long trail ride with Jules. It was a much more technical ride than Dinah has done before, with 2 big downhills and 2 big uphills. She was fantastic on the trail, we trotted and cantered! At the end she seemed to get very tired so I got off and handwalked her for the last little part of the trail. I did this to make sure we didn't over do it and also to help her cool down because it was really hot that day. I am planning on taking her on this trail at least once a week until the competition because it will be excellent for conditioning. I was very happy with her behavior out on the trail.


I am hoping that anyone who has friends in southern California can help spread the word about Dinah and connect her with anyone who would be a good fit for her. I really like this little mare and I want her to find a great home. I think she will be a great trail horse and a wonderful arena horse with continued training. She is so smart and such a fast learner. I am taking her on a field trip to Morgan hill tomorrow to stay at a friends ranch, practice trailering, riding with music and begin to work on her freestyle.

Thanks for reading!