Kenlyn Mares

I had a very nice visit with Linda of Kenlyn arabians.  Her two mares that she had me meet were very pretty and nicely put together.  We got them both out, tacked them up and then got ready to ride.  Freeze, the first picture has an issue with her ears being touched.  In the show barn she was at as a yearling or two year old would grab her ear to get her bridle on.  So Linda had a little bit of issues once she had to get the headpiece over the ears.

Freeze Frame

Both mares were good with their feet, Zaphira moved a bit when the saddling occurred but it didn't phaze Linda.  I wasn't too excited about it.  We went to the mounting block, I got up on Zaphira and then Linda was on Freeze.  When I was on Zaphira she was picking up on my nervousness, and I couldn't really figure out how to use the hackamore or to rein her.  I didn't want to pull back to hard but I felt a sense of panic even though she wasn't doing much but I could feel her tensing with me tensing.  Linda said "here, hop off" she had one of her boarders or trainer ride her and they went into the ring so I could watch both be ridden.  I was thankful that she understood my nerves.

After they had ridden a bit and I had also viewed another trainers horse I hopped up on Freeze.  We stayed at a walk in the ring and I talked with Linda on Zaphira.  We chatted about feeling comfortable on horses and the type of horse I wanted.  I liked Freeze, she listened to me quite well but I didn't have the courage to trot yet.  There was a lot of movement in the ring, Linda, another rider and a gal longeing her palomino.  I can easily come up again to try her out and perhaps do a trail ride like Linda suggested.  She really wanted to show me what the horse was capable of. 



Zaphira



She's been on several 50 mile endurance races, and been on quite a lot of difficult terrain.  Sounds like she would be a great mount but I'm not sure I'm up for it but I didn't feel the jitters on her like I did with Zaphira.  Linda talked to me a while after our ride....it was so hot!  We had ice water in her house and chatted about riding, fear and that life is too short to worry about riding a horse who gives you jitters.  She said that she gets jitters on some horses and usually she just doesn't ride them.  If there is a horse that she doesn't get the jitters on why ride one that does?  What point is there?  I tend to agree with her, I shouldn't chastise myself for feeling uncomfortable on Zaphira, even though she didn't "do" anything.  I probably just have a sense inside that she and I are not right together.  It's like a sixth sense and after this experience and a talk with Linda I feel like I need to listen to myself more and not feel like I'm being a "wussy" about a horse that makes me feel nervous. There is probably a very good reason!



Freeze is a potential but with each race, and luckily there is only one more, her price goes up because of the cost for entry, mileage and then just the experience the horse gains.  It makes sense and she already is pretty high in price.  We'll see, I still have a lot of horses to check out.