Friday mid-day it had finally dried up enough for both boys to get some riding in. I darted between light showers, and rode both in the endurance saddle so my good dressage saddle didn't get a bath.
Harley was great. He did really well, behaving good considering the long weather break, and the not-so-fabulous weather conditions. Rode all three gaits, and tried to make the trot-canter transitions a little smoother. Also worked on halt-walk and walk-trot more polite. Trying to improve his up transitions from the head-popping nonsense back to collecting and mindful. With the longeline warmup and the ride, Harley got about 45 minutes of work.
Romeo and I worked on much of the same. He started out in his canter very fast, but settled down. I concentrated on studying his leg movement and footfalls, especially in the canter. It's neat to be able to feel the legs move underneath me when his canter is slow enough. His trot was a bit irregular, and after the canter, he was incredibly interested in a long extended trot. It took a little while, but he did relax some. No longeline, and Romeo enjoyed about 35 minutes of exercise.
This was the end of my riding since. It's been too wet. We got hammered with a huge set of storms Saturday overnight and early morning that lasted through mid-morning. With puddles all around the neighborhood, riding down the road wasn't even an option (choices being gravel road [rocks!], or ditches [water!]. Hoping things will be good enough tonight for a walk with Harley. If so, it'll be walking only, under saddle, minus a longe warmup. Could be interesting, but he needs the mental activity, and I need my horse-fix.
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