01/26/10 Goober

I grabbed Ransom in all his hunter saddle glory, twisted o-ring bit. And, of course, if at any time I make plans for after my ride, I must certainly assume something will make me late.

Tuesday night, it was the arena fence. The entire arena is finally dry, and of course, in all the blustery wind, the fence was down in about five spots. I patched & mended, knotted & fiddled. In this process, Ransom had to stand with me at the end of the lead rope. He apparently found this activity less than pleasurable. Simply, and not so kindly put, the old fart wouldn't stand still. Fidget & fuss, ants in his pants... he would NOT stand. In one of my moments of discipline, I gave the lead rope a tug. Unfortunately, I forgot the other end of the lead rope not on my horse, was on me, resting against my neck. Ransom pulled back, and because of either my body balance, my bad coordination, something, the rope rubbed against my neck. Owch! I rode through the stinging, but it left a mark. Darn it All!

In all the fidgeting & fussing, when I finally got the fence fixed, I unclipped the lead rope, and Ransom was on fire! He galloped about the arena for quite a while, and then worked himself up nervous, and wouldn't let me catch him. When I finally did, I got the bridle on, and decided to get on as if nothing happened, ride around relaxed, and wait on him to relax.

That took a good ten minutes. He had this awful stickie, fussy, swift walk going. Bunches and Bunches of itsie bitsie steps. When he did calm down, it was finally time to work.

Warmed up on the flat work, walk, trot, canter, no problems. His trot was easy, strange dispite all the running he did. I approached my circle of poles, rode over at trot each way, and got a little brave. Okay, a little stoopid.

I tried cantering over two or three poles one after the other. I discovered a few things.
1. I'm not that coordinated yet
2. Ransom is stiff on the circle if he has to think about where he's going, and what's on the ground in his way
3. I'm really not that coordinated yet

*giggle* Overall, it was silly fun. When I realized I was nowhere near ready for the multiple poles, I tried something different. I picked up canter in the near circle, with only one pole in our path. I was deliberately releasing the reins, and pushing up to two point over the pole. Ransom played right along at this game, and reached like it was a jump. Much Cuteness!

After the ground pole work, I focused a bit on flat again, transitions, and staying quiet in them. He's tossing his head and running into canter-left once in a while, and I suspect it's me being too busy thinking about where I'm headed next. I'm not concentrating in the transition. When I do, they look darn pretty. Our down transitions, well, just look great. The more I concentrate, the prettier he is. Good Boy!

All the galloping in warmup led to a heavy breathing pony, led to a short ride. About 35 minutes, and I cooled him down with a walk. When we got back to the trailer, I quickly got his turnout sheet on him, wind howling all around us, making the air feel cool.

Tonight, I will sneak a haircut. I would LOVE to lunge Mo, but I don't see when or how. Still need to think this out a bit. Hairdresser is working until 9, so in theory I could stuff a quick lunge in there. Dearest Mo needs to work. Oh Me Oh My.

Countdown to HorseMaster 5 days.
In other news, it appears the Waco Force Field had travelled briefly to my riding arena. However, I'm working on lifting that curse, as I was able to get a few intermittent communications out from that location. Whew! =)