Dress-up & circles

Too bad it didn't get here earlier in the day yesterday!

Sunny - more fun to dress up than Barbie - lol!

 It was too warm (61'!) to need it today, and I could have used some anti-static spray to keep the zappies down.

Think he has a career as a sports model ahead of him?

 

Nah. Still, I think it fits him pretty well.

Dress-up time over, I tacked him up and started working on those big round circles.  Loose rein, nice easy posting trot same as yesterday.  It was breezy and there were hunters wending their blaze-orange pheasant-seeking way through the fields next door and across the road. But in spite of the distractions he did pretty well. One lovely canter transition to the left and a not-so-great one or two to the right. Spiral, spiral, spiral.

All told, about an hour's ride.  I brushed him down, then let him graze under the trees where the grass is still greenish.  No work with Thunder today, but tomorrow it's his turn.

New old duds

I may have ridden another horse this weekend, but Sunny and Thunder didn't get left out of the fun completely.  I've been window-shopping for a cooler for Sunny. 

I have a good turnout, but I've never actually had an opportunity to use it - the horses' coats are thick and wooly enough that they never seem cold, even when it's really bitter.  But If I'm going to keep taking lessons, I don't want to haul him damp, therefore the cooler.

Before I actually order one, though I wanted to do two things: 1) re-measure for size, and 2) make sure he remembered how to wear a blanket without flipping out.

Got anything else you want me to wear?

I shouldn't have worried.  

He was completely unflapped.  

I'd forgotten about this old wool stable blanket, but when I ran across it looking for something else this morning, I figured it was perfect for a refresher course.  Not much is going to hurt it.  And actually, ugly as it is it's still really solid and if fits both boys well.  Slightly moth-eaten in a couple of spots, but nothing a patch or two won't cure.

Thunder takes a turn

Once Sunny'd been a good Monkey-See, I let Thunder have a go at being Monkey-do.  And he did a great job.  Having a heavy, flapping thing draped on top of him didn't seem to worry him in the slightest.  After a few test flops, I buckled him in and walked him around.  The wind was gusting and flapping things, G had the skid loader running in the farmyard... not a snort out of him.  Which is pretty darn good, all things considered.

Next time I take along the turnout - it's fiber-filled, puffy, and rustly.  That should make things more interesting.