Evening Toodles

I had planned a crazy Friday night for once - meeting a friend at the barn for a ride. I actually got out to the barn really early as I was having a bit of a "woe is me" day where nothing was going right for me. By which I mean that there was a line-up outside at 3 different registry offices (had to renew my car registration), the bulk food store didn't have something I wanted so I tried to order it on Amazon and 2 day shipping turned into 4 week shipping when I went to pay (why even bother with Prime right now?), and then I couldn't find the cord for something that needs this specific cord to recharge it.

A crappy day is a good excuse to eat a horse.

I had plans to hop on Phantom for her first ride in a while so when I arrived at the barn I took a small dish with her Ventipulmin in it out to the field. In her previous paddock, she would generally come to me at the gate and would eat the small amount of food in the dish before the other horses realized that she was eating. I knew that this would not be the case in her current turnout with Cisco and Pete.

I left the dish outside the gate and entered the paddock. Sure enough, Cisco saw me and left where they were all eating to come to me. I met him about halfway, gave him a pat on the nose, and continued on to grab Phantom. Cisco followed me, because, obviously, I was out there to grab him.

And then he walked right next to me when I led Phantom up to the gate. And put himself in the spot to go through the gate.

He was quite put out when I pushed him back to let Phantom go through. And even more put out when she got to eat food right in front of him. Cisco decided his day was sucking too.

My friend texted that she still had to do a couple of work things before coming out so I figured I had time to ride Phantom first. I scraped off a ton of hair which just let all the dirt come to the surface. Whatevs. She's already pooped all over her tail so it needs to be washed again.

It wasn't an exciting ride, which was perfectly fine. It was a bit of an evaluative ride to see how she felt - not too bad. I should be able to get a couple more rides in on her before her required time off after her vaccinations later this week.

My riding companion finally showed up and tacked up Cisco. I proposed that we do a short ride in the arena and then head outside to ride around. She was on her new horse that she's only had for about a month and she doesn't know him all that well yet so she needed a buddy to ride out with. For once the wind had died down and it was an absolutely beautiful April evening - the bugs haven't come out yet.

My only goal for the ride inside was to canter over a couple of poles that I had set up in 2 point. I had put a neck strap on Cisco to help me find my balance.

We only did it a couple of times. To the right, we nailed it. To the left - well, we had a shitty turn out of the scary end of the arena (which he had a good spook at because the wall was on fire ie. sunlight was shining on it) and then he likes to get quick heading towards the gate. The good thing was that I saw my distances, the bad thing was that I knew they were going to be crap and did nothing to fix it. But my 2 point felt slightly better than the previous ride, so that was a positive.

Way behind, didn't care.

Then we went outside. We started off walking around the big field, then down one driveway, along the road in front of the paddocks, and down the second driveway to the neighbors and back. Friend's horse was a perfect gentleman and happy to do it all on a loose rein. Cisco was a bit concerned in the beginning, had a slight scoot when passing the paddocks on the road and a couple of young mares rushed the fence (then one of them took a header and slid on her shoulder in the mud for about 8 feet), and then was perfectly content on a loose rein, walking well behind the other horse. His short legs and relaxed walk couldn't keep up with the tall, forward TB, but he didn't care.

Beautiful sky before the sunset.

It was a lovely evening with us having the barn to ourselves. I only wish that we had stayed out about another 20 minutes to see the sunset - when I took Cisco out there was a lovely lavender coloured tinge to the skyline. Also I wished I had my phone with me. I had forgotten the running belt I wear when I ride to keep my phone in, and other than my bra I didn't have anywhere to keep it on me while riding.  I guess we'll have to do it again to get pictures!