Holy Moly! Killian Breaks Out a Sweat (barely)

"Lady, that was much more work than I cared for"

"I'm ready to go home now"

"Look at all my sweat! I feel so gross"

Close up- but under the saddle he was dry. Crazy. 

He looks thinner already! 

Sweet Danny "guarding" the gate, while I was gone. 

When I first got there, the BO walked out, and I said hello. I could tell by the tone of his ,"Hi" that he wasn't thrilled about me being there. When I got inside I saw why. He had a horse tacked up to work. I guess he was hoping to have his arena to himself.  I tried to stay out of his way the best I could, but his horse was pretty wound up and all over the place, so sometimes it was difficult.  When a lady and her daughter showed up, he gave up I think. He never even mounted up, just ground worked and then put his horse away.  I felt kind of bad.

It was a pretty good ride, all things considered.  I did bute him before we left, but I think he spit half of it out again. It was awfully thick.   I'm not sure if it made a big difference but I did get some forward out of him.  It got pretty crowded right about the time I wanted to start making him lope, so we didn't even get 2 full laps.  You really have to peddle him to get him going and it is constant work to maintain the speed, couple that with him having some pretty rough gaits, it takes every bit of concentration to keep him moving and stay on at the same time. So when the lady and her daughter started tacking up, our "speed session" ended. Didn't want to risk any crashes.

I did alot of "pretending" to be in a Western Pleasure Walk Trot class. I rode one handed, tried to steer with my feet and legs, and tried to stop with my seat. Did okay on the turning, not so great on the stop.  We did some spins, and pushed the ball around, and some side passes.  Mostly we just trotted, around and around. The main point of this ride was to burn some calories off the big guy.  He does have some decent moves, if you can get him moving.

I had planned on riding longer but decided to cut it short for the other two riders and thinking perhaps the owner would go back in if I left.

I have a friend who lives between Kim and I, who has a 60 acre ranch with an outdoor arena.  He used to let me use it all the time. He is in AZ right now so I called him.  He said I can still go and use it when ever I want (for free) so Friday night I will go down and assess what needs to be done to it. Last time I used it, in needed mowed and worked, but the equipment to do it is sitting right there.  That way we can take our rope gate, and bridge and what ever else we have and leave it there. There is no one out there at all, so our stuff  will  be safe, and we won't have to compete for arena time. Of course the weather will have to cooperate.

Tonight is our (mine and Trax's) first lesson with MK, I am very excited.

I had planned on taking Sassy last night but she refused to be caught, and finally I was so mad I just left her. She did not get any supplements or grain last night. She is such a little Wench. If someone had asked if the could have her last night, I'd have given her away.