My Horse is Cute

Man, that week got by me fast. Minor crises around the farm seem to have mostly slowed down; major crises are on a temporary break. The good news is, I have a beautiful niece, so another horse obsessive in the making for me!

In addition to cute baby humans, I've been spending this week seriously appreciating how cute my baby horse is. He got most of the week off, but on Friday, M and I hauled him and one of her horses over to a friend's indoor to school. I made the mistake of leaving the door open when I had him in there alone. Lesson learned: next time, the door gets closed. He spent a solid 30 minutes bucking on the lunge line, and then M came in and closed the door and he was fine. So I hopped on, and while it took some effort on my part to get him in front of my leg, once we were cruising he was great. So: first ride in an indoor, checked off the list.

 Yesterday I rode him at M's, because the weather broke and it was in the 40s. It hurts my Florida-grrl heart to say this, but it felt a bit warm. So even tho there was no one around, I felt confident getting on. Not only was he a total delight warming up, we even slipped into the right lead canter with no fuss. I didn't over-prepare, and I didn't over-bend him (M's critique of our canter work). I did my best to look straight out through his ears and keep the reins soft. It wasn't a canter I'd want to do in front of a dressage judge, but for where we are, I was thrilled. And the left lead was good too.

After I hopped off, I let him stand around and feel admired while I took his picture. I miss having people around to take riding pics. Maybe when I end up boarding again I'll have a picture buddy.

 Did I mention I have a sinus infection and can't talk? Right. So today I hauled my sick butt out to M's to ride again because it's still above freezing. Mom was nice enough to come along and help me get my chores done, and then she came up to the ring while I was riding Mo. The footing was a bit harder than I'd expected, so we mostly walked today. But since he's been ridden three times in three days and then not more than once every ten days for the month before that, I think it was okay for him to just have a light day. We practiced walking over poles. We also practiced our national anthem/winner's circle training.

OMG I love him. I grin the whole time I'm riding.

Gotta be able to stand still through the Star Spangled Banner
in case we go international. ;)

"We are men of action! Standing still does not become us!"

"Unless I can chew on your boot, then I'll stand here."

 Mom got a few shots of us trotting around a little, too. Nothing fancy today, on blah footing, but it was a pleasant ride.

I must have been reaching forward to pat him.
Who wouldn't?

Relatively fancy for as casual a day as we had.

I even got what I believe is my first between-the-ears shot on him.You can see how adorable his expression is. It makes it hard to end a ride, let me tell you.

So anyway, that's the boring update, but at least there are some cute pics. With any luck, we'll get a run of mild weather and be able to get some lessons in and then I'll have something to report.