It takes a lot to keep me away from the barn, especially in nice weather, but some stupid germ succeeded in doing so yesterday. I didn't know I could sleep so much in one day, but I can and I did.
Today, I was determined to get to the barn, even though I'm still not feeling one hundred percent. I might give it 73%, tops.
We did get off to a rather slow start, however, because Steve is working diligently to finish updating the website for our friends at Slide Mountain Ranch. Firefox is apparently giving him fits with an image size and placement bug that only happens the first time the page loads. However, I convinced him that a barn break was necessary.
We grained and cleaned paddocks, then Steve took Lena out to ride and I took the boy down to the round pen. We were all pretty lazy, but Bar did give me some beautiful work--including a lot of neck stretching all the way down to his toes while cantering. Those shots turned out too blurry, so I deleted them, but I love the extension in this picture--especially that front leg. (That's the bowed tendon, folks.)
Then I did one of my favorite things and got on Bar bareback. I started doing this, oh, several months ago and I don't really know why. It seems silly on one hand to get on a horse you're scared of--as I was at the time--with nothing but your butt and a halter and lead rope. And yet it is something that has worked for us for some reason. Maybe it's because I don't ask for much more than a walk--not with those TB withers of his, ouch--or maybe it's because we just play with obstacles and simple requests, like walk-halt. Maybe just because it imparts a level of confidence and trust. Whatever it is, it was a nice diversion on a mellow, lazy Sunday.
1 comment:
Nice picture! Bareback is good - you're closer to the horse and the horse to you. My mare is big - 16.2 - and doesn't really like me to get on bareback, otherwise I'd do it more - it's how I rode as kid for many years.
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