So much to update!

2nd solo hack from his field.

Saturday I worked a 12 hour freelance job and was pretty wiped out come Sunday morning but I really wanted to ride. Again, I had to drive around to Riley, tack him up at his field and ride him the mile back to the barn to meet up with my friend to school in the big field. He was a champ. I can now successfully mount him from a bucket without too much trouble (standing for mounting is not a strong suit of his, but I won't tolerate goofiness when I am half-on). The farm owners had just moved the cows to the field directly across from Riley's so he was a bit looky. As you will recall, the last time I fell off him was because OMGCOWARETHESCARIEST. But we marched down the road past lots and lots of cows and calves and then he stopped and tried to back up and spin. You see in the corner of the adjacent field the grass was so high that all you could see were these dark shapes moving around making noises. I let him stand quietly to figure it out and then his pasture mates whinnied for him. Great, I'm screwed. But after a minute or two of talking to him and having him stand politely, I urged him forward and he obliged. He kept on ear on the scary cows and the other ear on me, so I'd call that a small win. Luckily there were no balloons or scary pinto donkeys to deal with on the way back to the barn. We met up with my friend and practiced his hard bound issues. Riding with them, away from them, back to them etc. Sometimes completely out of sight, sometimes in sight, all over the field. He was really very, very good, until the mares started galloping around screaming. He screamed back and got stuck wayyy behind my leg. I pushed him forward and made him work. If was going to act like a butt head, we'd trot up and down hills, we'd serpentine, we'd work on the bit and he would get in front of my leg if it killed me. He threw a few little tantrums, but nothing I couldn't handle. I think he's finally starting to realize that I won't back down. It was a short ride as I wanted to give him a good bath so I could take conformation photos the next morning before going xc schooling.

Lucy in tow for a big adventures Monday

So Sunday, I pulled his mane and got him slightly less crusty from the night before. Amazingly, he and Henry managed to find the only dirty spot in their small paddock overnight to roll in, jerks.

What a good pony for his mane pulling. I finished it in record time (and yes, the old fashioned way)!

Then we tried to get conformation photos of him and he was completely unhelpful. To be fair, conformation photos are difficult under the best of circumstances, but I had hubs on the lead line trying to distract Riley and keep him still and Riley was doing his best "I don't know what standing still means" impression. This is literally the best photo we got.

At least he looks semi-clean and pretty fit (aka, hay belly is gone and he hasn't turned into a cow with the spring grass). Though I really wanted a good shot of his neck. *Also, I don't know why I didn't take off his bell boots. But a shout out should be made to Davis because they are without a doubt the best pair I've owned so far.

Lucy managed to get filthy before I even left the farm so she got a proper hosing off (it helped cool her down too) -- she was not happy about it. Yes, I will hose you down like a horse, Lucy.

We headed off to Carousel Horse Park to school. When we arrived we noticed that there were no other trailers there and we thought maybe they were closed for schooling, but we found out a little later exactly why no one else came that day**

Carousel is a pretty neat place. There's a big off-lease dog park, a therapeutic riding program, they keep the mounted police horses there and there are a myriad of animals. When you unload the first thing you have to encounter is this:

A white peacock (known as a peafowl) next to another regular peacock and they were both showing off so it was pretty intense. Also, if you've never been around a peacock they have a VERY distinct call, it's loud and jarring

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Um yea. Good times. Henry's eyes were rolling around in his head and luckily Riley has been there before and didn't do anything too silly. I decided before this ride to add a running attachment to my breastplate to give some steadiness with his head and to prevent him from popping his shoulder and it worked like a charm. I could ride really light but I still had steering! Woot!

Some highlights from our schooling:

Warm up trot through water

Weeeee, first canter through water!

Good boy Riley!

Up bank out of the water

Down bank first attempt, trotted in without issue

Second attempt, now we've got it... and he cantered lovely out of the water!

We played around at the water complex for a little while, going up and down various backs, and even giving Henry a lead in down the bank. Then we headed off to the main field with lots of elementary and BN jumps. Except as we came through the woods there was a giant party going on in the community park that is adjacent to the field. Moon bounces, water slides, about 500 people, basketball... it was definitely more that Henry could handle on his first off farm ride in 9 months and Riley didn't want any part of it either. We wound up both dismounting and walking our fire-breathing dragons across the field as far away from the commotion as possible. Silly boys. Once we got to the first field I got back on and made Riley trot and canter around so he didn't think that's how he could get out of work.

Then I asked Emily get on Riley and ride him up to the second field out of sight of Henry to jump some things. He was pretty great for her, she said he whinnied once but stayed focused, but once he was back in sight of Henry he pulled his antics again, spin and running out of jumps. She got him reconsidering that move pretty quickly and he got back on track. Though she complimented how well I rode all day and was even saying I should take him to the next event, after that we both agreed he needed one solid event under his belt with her before I take him out again. I still may take him to a little schooling show this weekend (some flat classes and maybe some jumping).

Needless to say, the jumping isn't the issue, the attitude is. He's going through a rough patch in the terrible 5's, but nothing we can't work through. And he finished on a really positive note.

Emily making Riley look awesome (his body condition is looking great too)! ps. she's 5'11" and I don't think she looks that big on him:)

The boys were both drenched by the time we were done (it was 87 degrees yesterday) so we gave them a good hosing off and headed home. Riley finally got to meet Lucy face to face and he couldn't have been nicer about it.

She even licked his nose!

All in all, it was a really productive weekend with more steps forward than backward and a great outing for his baby brain. I'm definitely borrowing the running attachment for awhile to see what kind of difference it makes. He felt great with it and at least he can't flip his head and hurt anyone in it!