No loping tonight, just lots of trotting and a bit of decent jogging. Peyton was in a bit of a mood for some reason, maybe just Monday, maybe too much partying in the pasture over the weekend. At any rate, he was a bit independent-minded tonight, so we skipped loping and did most of our work at a trot. Since he didn't want to cooperate and do his nice slow jog, and we had repeated steering problems, he got to work and do a peppy move-em-out trot for probably 45 minutes total. I'll say this, he's in decent shape. It was in the mid-80s and we were in the indoor arena, which is stuffy and warmer than the outdoor, and while he was sweating under the saddle, he didn't get as all-over sweaty as I thought he might.
Sara offered to give him an attitude adjustment if I thought he needed one, but even though he was being a bit of a pill, he wasn't so out-of-control that I felt like I needed to get off. That's a good thing, and a big one. With my last horse, DJ, I got that queasy feeling waaaay too often. Peyton was listening to me, he just wasn't obeying. Big difference from DJ, who when he got peeved would just flat-out ignore me, or sull up and refuse to move. Or pitch a fit and try to dump me.
Anyway. Lots and lots of trotting, around the ring, over poles, and weaving through cones. He got a little distracted by what was visible through the doors, and Sara told me how to get his attention again, which worked well after I figured it out. I went back to the two-hand direct reining and got most of the steering back, except for a few times at the end of the ring when he managed to bump my foot against the wall. We had a bit of a kerfluffle in the poles once. We were supposed to trot through them (4 poles) but lost our oomph halfway through and I didn't get after him in time. So we walked through, then I circled him back for another try. Try #2 was a bust, I couldn't get him to trot, so we did another bigger circle and finally got it on try #3. He also kept running out of steam during the cones, but I got better at keeping more leg on him to prevent that tonight.
My sitting trot came and went tonight; sometimes I could sit his trot well (better when he was going long and slow), sometimes I got a little off the beat or something, especially over the poles when he got bouncy. I did get better at the halt over the night, and got a nice turn on the haunches at least once, plus some good reverse work.
Only two more nights of riding. Unfortunately, I think we're out of nice temps for the summer. The prediction right now is for upper 80s on Wednesday and low 90s on Friday. Meh. I've been really lucky so far, it's been in the low 80s the past two weeks. I'm still thinking about the adult camp in July, but I really doubt that the weather will be good enough for me to deal with 2 hours of riding a night.
1 comment:
Way back when, when I was a real-true wrangler, I coped with the heat by taking a shower just before I went out, washing my hair, and braiding it so it would stay wet longer. Then if/when it did dry I'd run it under a hose or faucet. It really works amazingly well, though there was some doubt as to me making in through the summer without an arrest from the fashion police. :)
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