Weekend Update

Weekend Update


Bad weather weekend. It was rainy and horrible on Saturday, so we ended up riding in the indoor arena. I think it was Cole’s fourth time, this fall, and he showed significant improvement. In fact, I quit after a half hour and walked around in the rain for the rest of the ride. I wanted to end on a good note. Dante did great in the arena, but that is because Ellen has been working with him all summer. We just led Ranger outside for his exercise.

Of course, if it rains all day—the river will be too high to cross the next day. We did the hill with Dante and Cole together. We trot back and forth on the bottom, and Dante thought it was great fun. He behaved fine, but he started to anticipate the trot as soon as we got to the bottom. Of course, if you always do the same thing in the same spot, your horse will want to do that same thing all the time. Ellen immediately asked him to stop—and he didn’t. Dante lost his brakes. That meant it was time to reinstall them. It took a few trips going back and forth, and then Dante saw the light.

She did try to do some cantering, too. We trotted with Cole in the lead, and since Cole is the faster horse, it was just enough to tempt Dante to canter. She got a few successful transitions. We did the hill a total of three times and who knows how many times we went back and forth on the bottom.

Ellen then rode Ranger on the hill.

We really wanted to get across the river. The park finally fixed some more of the trail—and we wanted to give it a try. That section of trail has been in sorry shape since the big storm back in the spring. I took a few days off work to ride this week, so I should be able to get there. Cole will be so happy?

With the time change, Thunder has been serenading me an hour early. He got quite frantic this morning, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I got up 10 minutes before the alarm, so I guess he won. Ellen’s cat, Stormy, doesn’t speak. He knocked books on the floor to wake Ellen up.