10/17/09 Dressage

Let's not even talk about Friday, right ladies? As I skip right over it like it never happened. Thank you for your listening ears and patient minds. There might have been a mental meltdown otherwise. Nobody got hurt, and this is a near miracle. All of the damage has been repaired, I think. Thank you again and again.

I got up super early courtesy of kneeding cat paws, and got the boys fed by 6:00. Around 7:30, I went outside to grab Ransom & get to work. Jen and I had decided during my lesson I would get out my longer spurs, try to gently use them rather than moving my legs & heels all over him for "go".

Warm up was solid, even used side reins a bit. It was a cold morning, and, in the sun at the right angle, I could see Ransom's breath fogging out of his nostrils. Cool! :)

One or two tickles from the spurs, his "go" was, um outstanding. I took them off pretty quickly. We rode together for about an hour, and I had Ransom sweating, and me breathing hard, even a little toasty myself. We worked on our transitions, which were pretty good.. His halts weren't phenominal, but they weren't rotten, either. With the cooler temperatures, his canter was quick, but easy enough to get out of it. We argued good on a few down transitions into trot before he realized I wasn't going to give in or get off. The sun was warm, though the north-east wind a little chilled. It took forever brushing Ransom after our ride.

I decided then I was going to buy some body clippers, and get after it. I've been considering it since he bloomed winter fuzz. Our weather here is cool at night in the winter, but HOT during the day. Combine some humidity with that, and the decreasing amounts of daylight, I just didn't see how I'd be able to enjoy a decent ride length without having a sweaty crabby pony.

Total work, a little over an hour. The peace of a cool Saturday morning after a more-than-horrendous Friday was much needed. Good quiet time alone in the arena with an awesome horse.