I've got 99 problems, but a ditch ain't one.

So, that lesson I was all excited about?  Next Wednesday.  Derp.

I normally go to a cardio kickboxing class on Tuesdays, but I couldn't really pass up the opportunity to ride.  I'm excited about riding again, which is great and horrible, because I wasn't even honest with myself about how much I had begun to loathe this sport.  Sort of the opposite of the old "don't know you miss it until it's gone" saying.  More like, "you know your horse needs fitness to be comfortable, but trotting in the same horrible circle for hours sort of makes you want to retire him and sell everything."  Yay, unintentional intervention!

When I got out to the barn last night, BM was already there.  She's constantly working, which is such a change and something I sincerely appreciate.  I pulled a cavalleti out into the middle of the ring, towards one end.  I pulled him from his pasture and all the other guys wanted to come, too.  The little Arabian might end up as his friend, I think.

He was disgusting.

I'd put his fly mask on the day before and it was covered in dirt, his face was covered in dirt, and mud was dried on his canons.  I brushed and cleaned as best I could, but didn't really attack the dirt until after the ride.  I think I might give him a bath tonight.

We warmed up at the walk again, doing a couple laps in either direction with a cut across the diagonal to change.  I'm so excited about having a diagonal that I can cut across.  I pushed him into a working trot as he really, really wanted to be lazy.  He's had a bunch of changes the past few days, so I get that.  We trotted a couple laps, cut the diagonal, changed directions and did a couple more.  And then we worked on serpentines.

I haven't worked on serpentines in three years and it obviously showed.  The Kid had the hardest time listening to my cues versus thinking about where he thought we should be going.  It was as though he channeled his inner Bobby and mentally screamed CIRCLE?! CIRCLES ARE THE BEST! eighteen times before being abruptly shifted to change direction.

I trotted him over the cavaletti a couple of times before asking him to pick up a canter in what my psyche wants to already call the scary side of the ring.  Fuck you, psyche.  And then we worked on a jumping (though, uh, Kid didn't actually jump, but rather trotted nicely over) exercise that I, again, haven't done in three years.  A figure 8, I guess?  With the jump being the center.  Land, change direction, land, change direction.  And then reverse, so you work both directions of the jump.  It was hard work.  We've got to better our cues and our straightness.

While I was riding, they fed, so I didn't have his entire brain for the last part.

I took him back out in to the woods, but didn't want to be riding for as long as Monday.  We took a different path and Archie was asked a very difficult question.

This little ditch blew his brain.

We walked by it once and then I asked him, with strong calves, to cross it.  He took little dainty baby steps down and back up.  I stopped him, praised him, turned him in a circle and went back over it.  And then we walked back to the barn on a loose rein.  I hosed him off, gawked at the new guy (tall, bay TB) (who cribs) (it's neurological, he can't help it!), applied his fly stuff and some liniment and fed him his dinner.

SO MANY TRAILS!

And grass!

Mother, please.

Food now?