Last Riding Lesson (for now, anyway)

Had my last ride on Peyton tonight, and it went much better than I'd expected. I've had a truly sucky day or two, starting with the vicious canker sore on the side of my tongue on Wednesday. Today stank royally, and I was afraid that it would carry over and make for an equally rotten ride tonight. I got lucky, and it didn't happen.

Instead, I had a really good ride on my pal Peyton. He started out the night with this hilariously pokey, wandery walk. You could practically see "doo be doo be doo" in a bubble over his head as he strolled along with his hands in his pockets. (He can cross his front legs, too - did it the first night as I was checking the girth. Funny boy.) He gave up on that, and I got some good walking, really nice jogging, and not one, but two good lopes with him.

We all got to lope tonight; the other girl was riding Sunny instead of Alera, and we had the little girl with Di in our group tonight. I got a full lap and some change out of Peyton both times, and kept him from scattering out in the corners. I even got complimented on how I handle Peyton; I guess he's a bit stubborn sometimes, but I can handle stubborn. It's genetic. Now, flakey, screw-loose spookers are a whole other story. I got the lope departure down and got Peyton to just sort of step into it from a walk. It's just remembering to leg him a little when he starts to downshift that kept getting us; I didn't notice fast enough to cue him in time. Plus, when I tried to keep my heels down, my lower leg came off him and he'd slow down some. Girl #1 loped Sunny on the lunge at first, then on her own. Girl #2 got a full lap out of Di, and compliments on that; Di's a bit attitude-y (and very roly poly in the tummy), and I guess some of the college girls have a hard time with her.

DH and El Burrito came to spectate; DH got a few pics but was busy wrangling little Taco boy most of the time (the Burrito refused to nap today, among other issues).

And now I'm flat out tired and going to bed. It's going to be a long, long, frustrating weekend, so the story of my crappy days will have to wait. But it may be entertaining!