Oh Em Gee, Did I just use the arena?!

The back half of the arena is still a little wet and slippery, and there were a couple of wet spots off the rail on the good side, but it was ride-able. It was also 75 and sunny out today, so there was no way I was going to miss an opportunity to use it. I took Red out first since I hadn't ridden him in almost two weeks. He gave me a long, sideways look when I put his saddle on, like, "Wow, you're actually going to ride me? I thought you'd taken up donkey riding exclusively." Oh, Red. You're still the best pony. You just don't like going trail riding by yourself.

I gave him a nice long and low warm up with lots of cirlces since we couldn't go all the way around the wet rail, then I took him over the barrels twice. He jumped them with as little effort as possible; after all, they're what? -- two feet tall? Pathetic. So I put a pole above them to make them a solid 2'9" and he decided that was high enough for him to actually put for some effort....about three times. Then he was tired and didn't want to play anymore. However, Fran was blabbing away in the arena while I was riding, so I made her take some pictures which means Red had to jump three more times. The first time was perfect, second time was really good, and the third time he took off at a long spot and touched the rail with his front foot--no knock down, but a good clip. I left it at that since he was tired, but guaranteed if I had took him over it again, he would have lifted his legs to his eyes; he hates touching rails.

Jump one.

Jump three. Notice the rub with the RF.

I gave him a good cool down and hose off since it was so warm, then took him out to graze. I talked to CL for awhile about her daughter's lesson next Tuesday with Bobby, so Red decided to help himself to the hay cart while he was waiting.

I let him graze for about twenty minutes while he dried off, then wrapped his legs with linament. I threw Bobby out in the arena to get some crazies out, but he was sooo sleepy he just wandered around a little then came over to me.

I switched his bit to the new full cheek, though, now that I'm looking at pictures, I put the bit keepers on wrong (I've never used one before). Not enough to make a huge difference, but I'll fix them today. I put draw reins on between his front legs, which I pretty much never do, but I really want him to use his topline. He was incredibly lazy, but I got some good w/t bending circles out of him. I spent a TON of time at canter, trying to get him to bend on a circle, then go straight on the long, but I had to avoid so many mud spots, it wasn't going great. His canter has gone back to square one since I haven't been able to school him in the arena in so long. Arghhghgh, I need canter help!

I took the draw reins off and jumped him a few times. The first two times, he was incredible lazy and did the wonderful "throw up" over the first jump, then took a barrel with him over the second. I set the spurs into his ass after that and he finally woke up and jumped nicely.

Puke. Literally.

I hosed Bobby down too when I was done, even though he absolutely detests it. Fran grabbed him to go out to graze while I got Red out again. Once he was dry, we put them both away and by the time I cleaned up all my crap, it was dinner time for them.

The hounds got to go for a swim on the way home, even though I hosed them off at the barn between rides to keep them cool. It wasn't that hot out, but they're still really fuzzy and I felt bad for them. They felt bad for themselves after being dragged to the washstall.