Quiet days

The last couple of days have been fairly quiet around here. Monday everyone had off and took a nice long day out in the field while I recuperated from the weekend's hot, sweaty horse show.

On Tuesday, Bella had yet another day off, so the only responsibilities I had were to the babies. My little sister finally decided to make some time in her schedule to hop up on a horse, and I handed Patrick's reins over to her while I tacked up Bailey. I was reluctant to let her on him, because he's just turned into such a fun little horse to ride, but it needs to be done if I'm ever going to sell him. As some of you may know, I was a little worried that I'm making Patrick into 'too much horse' for the quality of rider he's likely to go to, but he proved my worries wrong. He was a total doll for my sister, and it provided Bailey with a buddy for some new adventures.

First, we took them out into the field and trotted them up the hill a few times. It was the first time Bailey had done this, and she handled it like she was a 30 year old school pony.

Then we took them into the ring and gave them both a good hack. Patrick slowed his trot right down for Becca, and once she figured out how to balance her body correctly, he even picked up his leads for her. It was nice to have another horse in the ring, because it gave me the opportunity to teach Bailey that it isn't follow the leader, and allowed her to experience being ridden head-on at another horse. All valuable lessons for a show horse, as most of you know!

After the sweat session, we decided to take them for a little walk around the property; something neither one of them have ever done. However, Patrick boldly lead the way around the perimeter of our 15 acres, and Bailey calmly tagged along right behind him, occasionally trotting to catch up if she stopped to sniff something for too long. It was actually pretty cute, and I'm glad they both behaved so well!

Yesterday, I finally put Bella back into work after a three day vacation. Usually she's much better after a break, but she was just kind of a pain yesterday. Her A.D.D. had her all over the place, but it wasn't altogether entirely unsuccessful. I just kind of dealt with it. Her feet are getting so long and nasty that I'm keeping it easy until the new farrier comes on Monday. I finally got someone to return my phone call, after weeks of struggling to get someone out here.

Patrick was a bit of a lazy bum yesterday. One ride with my sister and he decides he's done working hard! It took some convincing to get him moving, even with spurs (mind you, I'm against flatting horses in spurs, but for now, they just work=/).

I lunged Bailey in side reins and introduced her to the cavesson, which took some convincing to get on her head. After that, she went right into her lofty, slow warmblood gaits. Not exactly what I had in mind! She really needs to learn how to stretch her shoulders. I think it's part of her growing process still, but I don't want her to get in the habit of falling short with her reach.

Today I'm holding off on riding because a friend of mine from school is coming to join me. I've decided Patrick is not only the safest option for her, but probably the smartest as well. Not only can Bailey get another opportunity to ride outside of the arena, but Patrick gets some exposure and another different rider. We'll see how it goes!