Opening Day

Sometimes a little guilt goes a LOOONG way.

Today is opening day of East River pheasant season in SD.  Straight up noon, and the shooting starts.  The cars and trucks full of blaze orange-wearing occupants are out cruising the countryside much earlier, of course.  And wives all over the state (and elsewhere) - me included - become hunting widows until the sun sets.  Store run sales and hordes of women head for the malls and shops with credit cards and checkbooks at the ready.

I'm not much of a shopper, so I usually end up spending the day at home doing housework and making dinner while T's off tramping through the bushes having a good time.  Do I play the guilt card?  No, but I think he might have been feeling just a smidge guilty anyway, because when I suggested he might be available before noon, to help me out with something, he agreed.  

I wanted to ride and practice my "homework".  Needless to say, riding the country roads after noon this time of year is a risky proposition.  But until noon?  It's still quiet.  I wanted T to run the video camera while I rode.  Too bad I forgot to charge the battery last night.  

But at least I remembered the Canon, so we made do with that.

How far over can I lean, I wonder?

He's trying really hard - too bad I keep getting in his way!  It's difficult NOT to look down.  And I could tell how stiff I was getting, because my feet were loose in the stirrups.  Watching the video back bears out what I was feeling, but couldn't seem to correct. 

I guess on the plus side, now that I'm getting the hang of what it's like when we're both working together,  I can at least tell the difference when I'm wrong - now I need to start listening to that internal voice saying, "Breathe.  Relax your shoulders.  Sit up straight.  Don't look down.  Better!".

When I was through T wanted to try his hand.  He and Sunny have a history of not clicking so well.  And the English saddle is definitely not his thing.  But today was a happier day.  Sunny's ears did flick a bit at the weight difference, but he stepped off solidly enough.  They did figure-eights and circles at a walk while I coached on aids and hand position and tried to explain contact.   What T absorbed of Eric's lesson wasn't exactly what I recollected, but we "agreed" to attribute that to the variations between English and western aids.  (I'm pretty sure I'm right, but I'll let Eric sort us out, lol!) 

Combat boots and all

When T was done, I hopped back on, collected Thunder and made a few loops around with him in tow.  Finally got some video of him in motion, and Blogger says it's 2mb too big. :-(  Guess we'll have to try again another day.