On the road

Steve and I are on the road, off on our week of camping and exploring. We stopped at the barn on our way out to grain and give treats and I'm not yet experiencing any serious horse withdrawal. Tomorrow may be a different story, of course. Luckily, we head to Ike and Cheri's next Sunday, so total horse withdrawal won't be too bad, though I'll still miss my horses.

I had an interesting and very helpful lesson Thursday night, though I'm still a little stiff from it. Bar takes a lot of energy, though possibly it would be less if I could relax a little more. Oh, well.

We started with serpentines all the way around the arena at a walk, then a trot, to loosen and supple him up. They also help get that brain of his focusing on other things besides tossing his head and being grumpy that it's feeding time. Since we were also working back and forth over the ruts in the arena, it made him pay attention to his feet, too. A very good thing for many reasons.

Peter also got the martingale out again, just to take the head tossing out of the equation a little more. Actually, I think it also minimizes the spastic-ness that comes through/from my hands somewhat which is also a good thing.

Yes, I know. I'm really hard on myself.

It was a good lesson, and Bar and I learned a lot and actually had some good balance and position throughout.

I also learned a valuable lesson on Friday. I got to the barn in the morning before work and Peter suggested I ride. I thought about it, but since I was leaving on vacation, I thought I could go into the office, do a few things, then get a ride in later in the day. Ha! So next time, I will definitely plan on a ride in the morning, even if I have to work late.