6/22/09 Ransom in the Heat

Well, the second season of summer has certainly arrived here. You haven't heard of the three seasons of summer in South Texas? Oh! I'm sorry, please forgive me... Maybe that was only something I learned...

There's Five Seasons here in South Texas,,, at least in my opinion.

1. Cold (January, February, March, wet, windy, and usually nail-splitting humid, making the cold feel colder)
2. Hot (April, May, early June)
3. Hotter (rest of June & July)
4. Hotter than H-E-double-hockey-sticks (Late July, August, September)
5. Hurricanes (October through early December)

=) That might seem a bit dramatic to those folks born & raised here... but I don't care! =) Yesterday's high was 99F (according to Intellicast.com), and at that time, there was about 77% humidity. So, with similar weather expected all week, I'd say we've progressed to the third season, "HottER".

Fed the boys as soon as I got home, fetched some supper for myself, and piddled around the house until around 6:30pm. In that time, MacKenzie thought it necessary to take herself for a walk down the street (snuck out under the house,, little fart!). I left her out, tried catching her once while I was saddling Ransom, but she had other plans. So, I figured she'd come to me when she was ready.

Ransom was, um, *awesome*!! His canter was, um, while not collected, smooth, and ground-covering. He was in the mood to go somewhere! His walk was really really big, and the trot collection work went great.

We worked through the "pieces" of Intro B and GAG II. I did trots down the diagonals, 20M circles in the center, 2-loop serpentines, and a few trots to halt (on the circle, and down centerline). Also on a spurt decision fit in canter both directions on a 20M circle in the center, much like Training 1. Ask in the corner, down the straight, 20M circle, transitioning back to trot on the last 1/4 of the circle. He was more than agreeable to this, I think happy to be doing something different somewhere different in the arena.

Finished up with long & low trot cool down. My big monster was breathing hard, so we had plenty of walk to finish up. Total work about 45 minutes, including warmup. A really nice ride.

Kenzie decided she'd had enough of roaming free, and found us in the arena at ride's end. I snapped Ransom's lead rope to her collar, and told Ransom, "Sorry buddy. You're walking back on the bridle today... blame your sister."