Even though this is a blog about my young horse, I still can’t say that these are the “horse days of summer” when the saying is the “dog days of summer.”  It was another steamy and hot weekend which makes you want to laze about indoors.  The past few weekends have been busy with activities – traveling, packing, unpacking, horse show, getting ready for the horse show…this weekend there were no pressing events except for a relaxing Sunday lunch to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday.  It is nice to have a weekend that can play out on its own.

My ride yesterday was just like the whole weekend – low key.  It was nice that Ms. C, my friend M, and I were all able to ride together and enjoy each other’s company.  Yes, it was a low key ride, but Ike was still very forward.  That forwardness was most apparent in our canter work.  Half halt, half halt, HALF HALT!  And we were still very forward.  When Ike gets that forward and that deaf to my half halts, turning becomes a challenge.  Circles become ovals, and my knee comes perilously close to the fence.  Luckily, we never were in danger of running into the other horses.  Our down transitions were also not quite balanced, but impossible to do when your horse is ignoring your aids.

When we have the opportunity to ride together, we all use the opportunity to teach the horses to stand quietly with the others and to also learn that sometimes you have to leave everyone and work while they still get to chill.  That has been hard at times to teach, but it is a necessary lesson for the horses to learn.  Ike gets a bit cranky initially when leaving (it is hard to leave the girls), but it is short lived.  As I’ve said before, he is such a good soul that he really does try to be good.

Today was a day of rest.  The boys got love and cold apples.  As you can see, Ike enjoyed his day of rest.  Hopefully the horse flies decided to take the day off too.