Riding Right

Sunday in the Saddle

It was a hot day, but the humidity was fairly low, so it was pretty tolerable.

I went out to lunch after church and got home around 2 or so. I gave the Boys some hay did a few chores inside, watched a little TV and kind of hung out. I fed the Boys and waited a while and then went out to ride.

The bugs were a bother to Tucker, but a little breeze picked up and we ended up having a nice schooling session. I worked on ten meter circles, concentrating on using the outside rein which really made the circles better. Then I played around with the counter canter and even tried a few canter half passes. I was surprised that Tucker seemed to have a little trouble with the concept, but at the same time, it also made him bring his hind leg under his body and then helped the downward transition to walk. After a short walk session with some walk pirouettes, we did some more trot this time working the shoulder in and a little try at half pass. Still not quite, but certainly a good effort.

I decided to take Toby out for a trail ride to test out the Cashel bug armor in the woods. With the mesh covering and an added mesh face mask, he seemed pretty comfortable. I'm not sure if the deer flies and mosquitoes were out in force or if we picked a particularly good time to ride, but I'd score the ride an A- only because Toby was fussing a little with his head--maybe because of the mask over his eyes.

I lunged Chance for about 4 minutes to see how he looked and I couldn't see any sign of a limp. If the weather isn't too miserable this week I may try a short ride. I can feel any unevenness in his stride best that way.

After the riding was all done, I took the tractor and did a good job of cleaning out Chance's run in shed. I took down the corral panels, so it's all open again.

That took me nearly until dark, so it was the end of the outdoor efforts for the day.

Weekend over, back to school.