Celebrity of the Week-Quinn

Horseback Riding - Meet Dude

I recently started to learn how to ride a horse. I am taking lessons at Hoofbeats Equestrian Center in Elk Grove.  At Hoofbeats, their horses are saved from people who don’t take good care of them. They have thirty horses. Some are miniature horses and some are large horses.  I met a horse whose head is almost as big as my body.

Dude is a miniature horse. He is not going to grow anymore. This is how he will stay. He is thirteen years old.  This is the horse I ride.  When I start my lessons, the first thing I do is brush his coat. I use two brushes. One brush is for the mane and tail, and the other brush is for coat.  They get all of the dirty things off of him because he rolls in mud a lot. Then I clean the hooves with another brush that is kind of like a scraper and you use it to get the dirt, thorns and rocks out. If you leave rocks in the hooves the horse can get an infection.

Meet Dude.

Alexis is my trainer. She gets me my saddle and puts it on Dude. I put on my helmet. I lead him to the stadium and climb on.

I ride around the stadium with Dude. Last week I learned trotting.  It was really funny because it feels like you are on a bouncy ball. Alexis says that if I do really good I can start jumping.