Rode again!

I had good intentions to get on Bestie again this weekend, but on Saturday I filled in for an absent stall mucker, and by the time I got done, I was tired. It was a really hot day, and it just seemed like a good decision to get the horses comfortable in their stalls after turning them in, with fans going and a flake of hay each, and head for home. Pretty much the same story for Sunday ... Katie and I went to the barn intending to ride, but it was just so HOT! I lunged Bestie and Katie hand-grazed and hosed Dude, who was sweaty from the heat.

Last night a storm went through and the temperature dropped nicely. Seems like that has been the weather story the past few weeks: hot, storm, cool. So Katie and I both rode today. I decided to live on the edge and not lunge Bestie beforehand. She was good, but still just so speedy walking around the field. If I try to half halt her she pulls an attitude and starts tossing her head around. I really try to keep my hands quiet and only pull when I feel I need to. I also try to sit deep in the saddle, so as to say to her with my body language, "We're NOT in a hurry here!"

When we got back to the barn she was sweaty under the saddle pad. I think it was just because she gets herself all worked up, because all we did was walk around the field for 15 minutes. She had a few opportunities to really be bad, like when one of the Arabians started racing around on the lunge line in the arena just as we were heading out the arena door, or when another horse tried to bolt out the arena door with his rider right as we were heading in. Amazingly (to me), she didn't use either of those opportunities to misbehave. She is a study in contradictions!