Baby's first gymnastic with me.

Hot mess.

It appears someone does not approve of Riley's flymask and insists on taking it off despite the fact that he's wearing a halter... grrr. I found it the other day (the day after I got it) in shed half-buried. Best part? It was still fastened! Crazy horses. One of the ear covers had a nice size bite out of it so maybe I'll just stop buying the kind with ears? Anyway, this is how I found him Saturday evening. No worse for wear and still able to graze so he didn't really care that much. It was entirely too hot during the day so we opted for a near sunset ride which was glorious. We had been running around all day moving jumps, I used a chainsaw/hedge clipper thing for the first time ever, we helped the farm owner move her horse in, and I walked up and down the same hill too many times to count. Our ring is soooooo close to being finished, but we needed a space to set up some jumps so Em could show Kiwi to a potential client. We set up a small gymnastic out in the field and I hedge-clipped a path in the knee-high grass.

Showing off his new bonnet.

Hacking to our make shift riding area. Jumps are set up on the right of the fence way down beyond Emily.

Little gymnastic. One stride to a 2 stride (the middle jump ended up around 2'3" the last one was maybe 2')

Riley was awesome. We hacked around the farm, past all the scary things with our buddy and warmed up. He was forward and feeling great. the running attachment has made such a huge difference with him bulging his shoulder. We started with everything on the ground as just poles and he cantered through like he's been doing it forever. Then we set up the first X and he got his striding sorted out. We put up the second X and he was great. It has been set originally for Kiwi, so we moved the last jump in about a foot (he's not nearly as leggy or long-strided) and we found a terrific balance. He felt rhythmical, even if the video suggests otherwise. The last time he went through a gymnastic was maybe 2 months ago, he was wiggly, squirrely and a bit all over the place. He never said no (though he did crash through one jump with my friend riding) and he tried very hard to understand the question, but it was a lot for his little brain. He's at the point now where gymnastics are really useful (especially with his whole spin-refuse-bolt maneuver) because it gives him more than one thing to think about.

Sorry that it's so dark, it was getting close to sunset! This was the first time through and you can tell he thought about heading back toward his friend, which was actually easy to correct. Also, I know, I need to put my stirrups up again!

Better this time through. Good boy Riley. The best part was, we did this several times and I was able to ask for a particular lead and circle in the direction after the last fence. Obviously he got big praise any time he landed correctly on his right lead, the left is easy!

Oh, so while we were riding we had no idea that a fawn had been high mere steps away from the crossrail in the grass!

So tiny! Later we saw the mama doe go looking for her!

I was so so so happy with Riley for being brave and game so naturally I had to take a ridiculous photo of how I felt:

Wild OTTB and the nerdiest rider of ALL TIME!

Sunday we helped the owner move her horse in to the barn and he and Riley became fast friends. Then again, Riley is bffs with everyone. He needs some time to settle in, so I offered for Riley to be turned out with him in a small field for a few days while he gets the lay of the land. They got along wonderfully in the paddock! Hooray! We took them on a maiden hack around the property, saw the cows (which Riley pretended to be afraid of again and he got a good beating for), sheep, goats, and turkey vultures.

Talk about a beautiful day for a hack.

Is this real life? How gorgeous is this place? Blaze buddies!

This is also my attempt at getting rid of my farmer's tan! Ha!

Riley was a little footsore yesterday on our hack, so I took it easy and put some hoof freeze on him to help toughen his feet up! I think the weather has been so just wet that his soles have gotten a bit soft and he might just have a bruise. Of course it's his dreaded LF. So while he babysits his new friend he'll get to spend his nights indoors. If he's still sore Thursday we'll have the farrier put hoof testers on him. Being that I bought him around this time last year and that this was when all the problems started, you can imagine I get freaked out when he seems "off". We jogged him on pavement and he was just slightly off, enough to keep him in for a couple of days. I'm grateful that he always has a stall when he needs it!

Love, love, love him.