A little bit of Saddle time

We finally got a little bit of rain....ok so more like record levels of rain in a single day, which cooled things off nicely for a minute but then when the sun came back out really cranked up the humidity.  But I did take a minute to enjoy some of that coolness and took Killian and Sassy for a little jaunt.

Sassy had just had another Electromagnetic therapy session for her shoulder, and it sure does make a difference for her.   Her feet are pretty much completely healed and as long as I keep her toes short, she stays pretty sound there. However, if she does not get her exercise her scar on her shoulder adheres to the muscle again and gives her issues. Also she seems to have a knee that bothers her on occasion.  Its always something with this mare.

It was sprinkling just a little, which felt pretty awesome, and I went ahead and made her wear a saddle for the trip.  I want her to get used to being saddled again, as I want to start putting actual rides on her pretty soon.  We made it around the block with no issue, other than Killian being a complete bone head and wanting to push through my hands the entire trip.

When we got back to the house I tied Sassy up, put on her Back on Track Knee Boots, and let her stand and "soak".  Then I took Killian back out.  You should have seen the look on his face!

"WHAAAAAT?"

My arena was under water, so we stuck to the dirt road in front of the house and practiced trotting and stopping, loping and stopping, and if we were leaving the house and loped a way he gave me a nice easy lope and a beautiful stop on the hind end.  If we were headed towards the house it was more like "I'M MAKING A RUN FOR IT AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!"   Finally he gave me a good one, in the right direction so we called it quits.

I didn't think I was going to be able to sort on Friday because the arena said if we didn't get more people it wouldn't happen. I managed to round up two other gals so we got to go.  I didn't take Killian this time which required Miss Melody to carry me down the road and too the arena all by herself.  She only spooked about 10 times but they were little spooks and I was ready for every one.

The other two gals were late so the Arena Guy (Teele) and I did a couple of rounds together. When the other gals showed up, he let us have at it, so we did 3 way sorting teams.  Mel did so good, and I was quite proud of her...for a while, then she started acting like she was afraid of the cows when ever they headed towards her.

At first I was going to just push her through it, then a light went on and I took her out of the pen and got off.  She was too hot.  We had been sorting non stop for an hour.  Usually you sort a round and then take a break while someone else goes. We weren't doing that and I had been out there longer than anyone.  I walked her around, gave her a long break, let her relax, and then we went in and did 2 more rounds. She did really well again, and I stopped there.  After that I just watched the other gals go.

Then came the time to ride home in the dark.  Since I am not sure if she has night blindness or not, I had a headlight on my cap so we could see where we were going. There are no street lights in our neighborhood, and there was no moon either.

This is when I learned that a single light moving around on the ground in front of her was much scarier than the dark, so I shut it off and we headed home.  This time I kept her in the middle of the pavement.  I felt that it was safest there since I knew that nothing would touch her feet there.  If a car came we simply moved to the side of the road and waited for them to go by. She handled the headlights coming at her fabulously.  I was quite proud of my girl.

The next day CNJ asked to come and use my arena (Oh CNJ I almost forgot to upload your videos- will do that today) and so while she was here riding her mares, I pulled Trax out and rode him.

Back when I had saddled Sassy it had rained on my saddle pretty good so I had taken it to the shop and and started cleaning and oiling it, and decided to go ahead and make the repairs it has needed for a long time.  Well it is still out there assembled, so I used the old cutting saddle on him.  It is the first time I have ever ridden him in anything but the Circle Y.  Trax is very sensitive in the flank and so I have always been leery of using a rear cinch on him.  I know that being a rope horse he has had one on him before, but not in a long time.  However he handled it just like a broke horse should, so as usual my worries were for naught.  He was a good boy for me and we had a nice ride.  It was short and sweet, but I was happy.

Then CNJ got her surcingle out for me and ground drove Sassy for me.  My goal for that is to get Sassy moving more off her hind, and off of that front end.   I had tried it before but couldn't really get a good movement from her.  CNJ got gorgeous movement out of her.  She looked so nice moving, and once again I fell in love with my little mare.

By then the mosquitoes were eating us alive and it was time to go.  I'm hoping to get some riding in this week as well.

The saddle shop is coming right along, got my first cleaning and repair job in.  It is amazing how many saddles I run across that come out of the factory with the Blevins Buckles on backwards.  This causes the strap to hang down into the stirrups which can be very unsafe.  I have learned how to reset the copper rivets, and turn them around.  The saddle I am working on had that problem but not anymore.

Eventually I will get mine back together.

Now I have to go, TC is hounding me to get off the computer.   First blog post in weeks, and he acts like I have been here for hours! ARGH!