2nd Ride and fun with Beamer

It wasn't a good day to take pictures while I rode, it was windy, and Chickory was a little snappier today. We ground drove a little longer and I doubled her on the fence a bunch of times. I wanted my friend to try longeing Chickory while I was on her, but Chicky wasn't having any part of that. She did well though, I was able to rein her in circles each way, and I'm getting a nice whoa-at the walk- and a real nice back up. So we did progress a little. We are working on keeping this filly willing and soft, and keeping the level of excitement down in her, out of deference to my advancing years and the corresponding hardness of the ground. So far, so good! Next ride is Thursday.

So..... Beamer and I ran the barrels on Sunday, in an ABRA class. My goal was to go correctly, and to let him run a little harder. Mission accomplished, even if we did place last! No shame in that, this was exactly the second time he'd seen barrels. I found that when I sit back to rate him for the third barrel I'd better not do it too soon- his reining training kicks in and he wants to do a nice sliding stop! We were consistent; 26 seconds each run.

Tonight I went to the arena because there was supposed to be a gymkhana, which was cancelled. There was one other person there setting up the poles, so we practiced pole bending- Beamer wasn't too thrilled- and after that we turned the cows into the arena and had fun working them. Much more to Beamer's liking!

It was a good day, topped off by a nice tranquil sunset after the windstorm of the afternoon. Tomorrow the farrier trims the mares, and I go help out at the Therapeutic Riding Center.