Monday's Child is Fair of Face

Be and I took last Thursday off to celebrate Thanksgiving day. Okay, so I really took it off to eat a delicious turkey, and she got a nice warm mash with goodies instead of being hauled in the dark for a lesson. To make up for that, I scheduled a Monday morning lesson on my last day off of a vacation-extended holiday. We joined a ride at 9:30 in the morning, and I really liked the daytime, stress-free experience of riding on a day when I had nothing else going on and not rushing home from work. I have since booked the remaining Mondays off for December, and have scheduled our lessons for those Mondays. Yay!

So, I walked out into the back acreage and clipped my horse's halter early Monday morning. Took her into her stall, removed her blanket, tossed on a light cooler and walked her into the trailer for the short ride over to the stable we take our lesson at. Be really loads so nicely, treats the trailer as if it was just another stall, and hauls like a dream. She likes to look out the windows too.

At the stable we joined in with two other ladies I get the rare pleasure of riding with. Unfortunately it has been raining almost constantly and the outdoor sand ring, despite the gorgeous day, was not good for riding. So we tacked up and prepared for an arena ride. My dear friend is helping me learn to sew, and I finished my first project the week before. Here is my blue floral saddle towel. Pretty cool, eh? I have more material I can't wait to try with my own machine once the bobbins come in. I think I'm hooked on this simple sewing stuff :) Also, I got a steal on a pair of lined foot warmers at the horse and tack auction this past weekend. You can see them on the run up stirrup in this photo. I got to try them out for the first time, and I just loved how warm my feet stayed!

Be says enough with the camera, let's go ride!

We had a very nice ride with lots of equitation focus. We also worked on collected trot - collected canter transitions. Since riding my little firecracker is much like a sportscar with a clutch and a touchy accelerator, I had to ask for that very carefully, almost just think it, and she did it. She's getting better and better at reading my mind. When we moved into the jumping, she actually is spotting her distances properly on her own too. So now I need to learn to trust her judgement, and just stay out of her way. She's got an arc to her jumping style, when I let her do it on her own. She even throws in the automatic flying lead change when we land. Such a good girl!

Here we are working into our corners past the open door. We can ride deep and almost straight in the corners, or curve a nice circle. Be is very athletic and versatile.

Back on the farm, I turned her and everyone else out for a lovely day as the sun brought the temps up. Here's the sheep, with the twins in the middle of the flock.

And Be enjoying her turnout