Morning Ride

Well, Not Really Early

I didn't get up until 8:30. That meant I needed to feed The Boys first before I rode.

By 9:30 or so, it was pretty warm but the worst heat was still on the way. I saddled up Tucker and did a nice little schooling session in the ring. He really was a good boy. We did some nice trot work with shoulder-in, leg yields, square turns, transistions and a bit of an attempt at half-pass--going to right a much better effort then going left.

I used the leg yield movement on every downward transition and only had resistance once when I wasn't quick enough to catch it. The neatest thing was when I moved up to canter and tried some canter/walk canter transitions. Tucker has gotten pretty good on the left rein at this exercise, but on the right, he still tends to trickle down to the walk through the trot. Today, I transitioned down through a leg yield and....voila!! He had it! It wasn't perfect, but the downward was so much better and twice out of three tries, he went right to the walk without the trot.

At that success, I brought him back down to the trot, let him stretch for a circle or two and called it a day. He really seemed pleased with himself, and I was too.

I put the bug armor on Toby and headed out to the woods. My goal was to ride out to see how bad the flooding is. Well, the corn has managed to grow in the stream bed this year, but the water around the trees is as high as ever. I am sure if I traced it, it would be well into the forest ponds. It is beginning to look like a permanent condition--a shame since one lovely road is covered and there is no real way to ride all the way around the cornfield anymore.

The bug armor was a godsend for Toby, but not 100% effective against the voracious and determined deer flies. Once or twice, one managed to attack him from below. Normally, that might not be a big deal, but Toby's reaction is a buck. It got a little scary when he decided to buck on a downhill portion of the trail, so I opted for the shorter route home instead of going all the way through the woods. I had considered taking Tucker for a short trail ride too, but now I'm glad I didn't. He is far less tolerant of the flies than Toby and his buck unseats me at first crack.

All in all, though, the armor does work. If I pick the right time of day to ride, then it does the job completely.

Today, I guess the flies were just more determined than usual.

I went for a swim and did my laps, rode the tube in the lazy river, and here I am back home, still thinking about maybe going to see a movie later.

Or, I may wait until tomorrow to go to the movies because then I can get the matinee rate.