With my weekend plans mostly made, I decided that when I got home, I was going to ride Ransom.
I got home a little early, grabbed my dressage saddle, walked out to the trailer, and unlocked everything. I walked out to catch him, and found his neck and underneath his hips sweaty. Yuck! Gotta love the 100F+ temperatures in this glorious weather.
Changed my mind. We weren't going to work hard, that would just be foolishness. I was already hot & miserable, and so was he. So I tacked him in his hunter bit & my western saddle. Headed to the arena for a brief warmup. Walk, trot, canter, free lunge around the arena, and he was slow and hard to get moving. It took some deep discussions, but he seemed to calm down quite quickly. I bitted hmi & hopped on.
Whee! Goofy on the brain! I guess the big monster thought that was his cue to be a nut. I asked for walk, good. Trot, good. Canter, whee! I asked in a corner heading down the long side, and he just felt fast fast. Not really controlled. After some, um, arguing, and more discussions, I was able to get his mind and his attention.
Unfortunately, in the wicked heat, he was puffing & breathing very hard. So, I walked him in hand down to the shady part of his pasture, and mounted up again. We worked around at the walk, with deer & bunnies bouncing in the trees. A few cars went down the road, which briefly got his attention. It took nearly 15 minutes walking around before the breathing slowed. Hosed him down, hand-walked him down the road, and hosed again.
Total "work time" about 40 minutes. Entirely not the peaceful trail walk around the pasture I'd hoped for, but he obviously thought work would be more fun. Goofball.
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