Not sure who said it, but isn’t there a saying that kids and animals will keep you humble?  My horses certainly know how to keep my head from swelling with confidence and bring me back down to earth.  Take for example our Training Level debut.  I had been stressing for weeks about our right lead canter and our stretch down trot. Our left lead canter has been spot on for months.  Can you guess where we had our lowest score on Sunday?  The LEFT lead canter!  Ugh!!  We cross-cantered and got a well-deserved 4 for our effort.  The right lead canter?  7.  The stretch down trot? 5.5.  I’m actually pleased with our 5.5 for the stretch down trot;  with all the chaos, I didn’t expect that we would have any stretch.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know which movement will cause you angst on any given day?  Too much confidence + too much chaos = average score + a big slice of humble pie.  I think I still prefer apple pie.  Deep breath.  We have over a month at home to just train rather than thinking about tests.  We will get stronger and our scores will get better.

I popped on for a short ride today to see where we stand with the canter transitions – not a single problem.  Sigh.  Stretch down trot?  Quicker rhythm and little stretch.  Sigh.  Back to normal.  And normally the summer heat arrives in Virginia in June, and the rest of the week looks to be a very hot one.  Close to 100 degrees with the heat index tomorrow and Thursday.  Yea…don’t you just love when the sweat rolls down into your eyes while you ride (burn, baby, burn) and you are a sopping wet mess even before you hose the horse off?  It is tempting to turn the hose on myself as well, but I hesitate since I do have to get in the car to drive home.

The other bonus for this time of year?  The horse flies have arrived.  Had the first one bounce off my helmet today and then head for Ike’s ears.  Unlike the green-heads and the common house flies, the horse flies are a bit slower to react when I take a whack at them.  Is it wrong to take great pleasure when I actually get one?