Sunday, June 28, 2009

Saturday was spent visiting Pixie and her pups. Wyatt and her walked around with me and started hunting after the initial sniffing was over.

MAN! The pups have changed. There is one that is just HUGE! I will try to decrease the MB's of the file so I can upload them. It is so much better that they are not with me. I would never, never be able to let them go. I was going to take some video but they aren't moving much. Little porker does as he tries to find the teat again.

I dropped off my old jumping saddle at St. Croix Saddlery. Hopefully they can get it sold. I sure am not getting a lot for it but one less saddle to clean and condition would be nice and anything will help.

Wyatt and I headed to CC. I was hoping to have the place to myself and ended up being able to set up cavelletti for us to work through after warming up. I worked on my jumping position and we went through the poles with no stalling out this time.

I trotted Josie up the gradual hill - good butt work for her. We went the opposite way around the arena pasture. I forgot about all the rain and we slid a few times but no problem for us. We then went for a walk down the trail. I didn't want to give Wy a bath so I was only going to go so far down the trail. I remained in cross country length stirrups. One needs to be able to deal with anything in them so practice, practice, practice. Josie was very good. We turned around before the lake and mosied back. What a lovely cooling off.

Sunday I decided to be a little lazy in the morning. I didn't realize how nice it was until I showered and took Wy for a walk. A little windy though. P my neighbor invited me over to sit on her patio and have some beer bread and chia tea. It was nice to chat. She is a very nice person.

Decided to ride western today and hoped to catch up with someone to go on trail. I put fly wraps on Josie while she was grazing. I knew she would be okay with the front ones. It is the hind that cranks her up.

I rode Josie in the indoor. I have been working on her response to light leg aids. Both calves on and off she goes. What a good girl. Took three tries to get a canter depart on the right lead. We did some leg yielding again. She is moving better in her weaker side. Pumping up the muscles little by little.

I went outside and decided to go for a trail ride just the three of us. It was extremely gusty and she was giving the tall trees a look but I just breathed and kept her going. The water crossing is back to normal. There were a few big muddy spots. One of them we did a little tree trimming as she wouldn't go through the middle. She spooked a few times at critters but nothing I couldn't handle. Wy was just chugging along behind us. We were crossing the water to go back and Josie wanted to head into the lake. This is most promising for when we go swimming. I turned her back to cross at the normal area as I don't know if the sandy bottom is all the way down there. At this point Wyatt likes to run ahead and previously I have noticed Josie thinks she needs to keep up. I kept Wy close so we wouldn't end up at a mad gallop back. Oh, Josie, you are the best and keep getting better.

Bath for Wyatt and a beer for me to conclude our most wonderful weekend.