5/30/09 Romeo

A good night's rest under my mind, I sent R off to work for a while, and scrambled home. Boy's away, girl's gonna play... ;) Hurried through coffee & cereal, got dressed, and ran to the barn... How awful.. I could've done all kinds of things that morning (including sleeping in, as the offer was extended, and was horribly tempting), but I couldn't wait! I'd gone a few weekends in a row without rides, and this one wasn't passing me by.

Grabbed the little fart, with my new bit in-hand. Much like what we showed in, with a bit shorter cheeks, and copper wraps instead of the twist around the lifesaver. I will need to figure out a way to shorten the curb chain, as it had absolutely zero contact on his chin.

Otherwise, a pretty good ride. We did have one or two arguments about staying in an easy canter. After the transition up, I'd let him go his way for a bit, then just barely grab contact (barely!), and try to slow him. A number of times, he'd slow to that UGLY fast trot. Those were rewarded with harsh back-ups, and since he quickly realized those weren't any fun.

Worked for about 45 minutes, with a good ten minute cool down walk. It wasn't particularly hot, but insanely humid, and as a result, Romeo was breathing pretty hard. Puff Puff Puff.. Let him enjoy a little more lawn grass, in some effort to put off mowing. I hoped if he'd mow it for me, I wouldn't need to cut so much. My patience ran out before he got a decent patch chewed down, and turned him back out.

Spent the rest of the day goofing off, being entirely useless to society. Intended on getting the mower working, but it's worse than I originally thought. I was hoping it was just a dead battery, but a brand new one didn't accomplish anything. Shoot! More work to be done there. In the meanwhile, I started hunting for an arena fairy to mow & drag.. All kindsa weeds & nasties growing in there, nearly 5-6" tall, making riding other than on the rail a little complicated.