1/11/2011:

Booted Ambrose with he newly studded Gloves from EasyCare Inc..  We mounted at the barn and headed off down into the canyon..  This ride is about 7 miles with about 2000 feet of elevation gain.  Ambrose was perfect, he walked the majority of the trail, walked right into the lake, did some trotting up to the top.  I can tell he is going to be a "Go Home" horse.  He picked up his walk to a little over 4mph on the downhills.  The farther we went the more comfortable he was.  Even the branches that hit my helmet did not bother him anymore.

Ambrose did some trotting on the one mile uphill to the ranch.  The more he trotted, the smoother he got.  He just had boots on the front so he was using mostly the side of the rode.

We pulled into the ranch at the top of the hill with his HR in the 180 range.  He took two long drinks at the water trough and we walked for a few minutes.  His recovery sucked, but he was not breathing hard and was not tired, he dove right into his food as soon as he was in the barn.  I was not going to tell but it took him at least 25 minutes to get down to 60...  Almost as soon as we got to the barn he was mid 70's.  We will look at the charts in a few weeks when we have something to compare it too.

Progressing quickly and I am impressed, he is a nice level headed horse, does everything well so far.  Nice walk, nice trot, easy to control, at least at this point.  Weather he will be of the caliber I am looking for remains to be seen, either way he will be a great horse.

Can hardly wait to get on him again.. but have other horses that need work  -  his brother MONK....