Off Schedule

When it was so hot on Sunday I gave Willow the day off so I wouldn’t melt riding two ponies. That meant my whole week of rides was going to be all off schedule.

I rode Willow on Monday, just a nice easy hack working on making the connection at the trot second nature for her. She’s definitely figuring it out and feeling great.

Monday ride ears

Tuesday is normally a lesson day, but I had already ridden Willow the day before and it was grossly humid and hot so I opted to take Mr. P out for a wander around the property. I put on his side pull hackamore and he was evidently feeling hungry and completely took advantage of the situation by plunging his head down for snacks. I felt like a pony kid booting his sides trying to get his head up, lol.

Snackamore time

Wednesday my friend Jess came out and rode P while I rode Willow. We took our ride out to the field and both ponies were great. Definitely a highlight of the week.

Field ride!

Stampede was due for a lunging session on Thursday and he improved quite a bit from the prior weekend lunge. Then he improved even more for our Saturday lunge. Actually got to a nice relaxed trot with his head down and stride stretched out. Woo hoo.

After lunge happy face

P and I of course took our Friday ride to the field. The barn was empty since a lot of the normal riders had gone to an away show. P and I took advantage of the quiet night and had a great hack.

Best view

Funny story – when I was riding him back to the barn we started to get surrounded by mosquitoes. He managed to shake his head and neck hard enough that his bonnet came loose and was just sticking out of his browband. He just kept right on walking while I reached up and grabbed it off his head, lol.

Saturday I picked up Willow’s mom, D, and brought her out the barn so she could see her girl and watch her work. Willow was good although she wanted to get crooked to the right a bit more than usual. I’m guessing that was a bit of stiffness due to having two days off. After the ride Willow got extra carrots from her mom and we hung out while she grazed for quite a while catching up.

Profile shot of the mare

Today I rode Willow again while my friend Lisa rode P. Lisa is coming back from a few weeks off after an injury and I think she enjoyed P and his easy-going personality. Willow was feeling fabulous and put on her big fancy girl trot and I wish I had gotten video of it!

She needs cookies now!

Sad to see this weekend end, it was such a good one!