Riding and pretty pads

River has been ridden!  Twice!  He had some quality time off after his little incident... although really, that had more to do with the weather being horribly horribly hot and humid than his dumping me.  I rode him Thursday and Saturday, and he was SO GOOD.  Next time, I need to take the running martingale off and rig up a standing out of baling twine (no, I don't own a standing attachment; as a rule, I don't like standings).  He still has his moments where he wants to stick his head straight up, but he also has some steering issues.   By which I mean, sometimes he doesn't steer.  The running keeps me from using an opening rein, so we'll try a standing, see if that helps.

Saturday, we did quite a bit of trotting.  And even over poles.  Granted, they were just ground poles, but still.  It was pretty impressive.  Except for when we walked over the elevated pole and he clunked it.  Hard.  Repeatedly.  Until it fell.  He struggles with the whole "picking your feet up and not causing mass destruction wherever you go" thing.  It's a work in progress.

The even more amazing thing?  I untacked him in the grooming stall, and he managed to leave without running into the wall (yes, it happens frequently) or tripping over the threshold and falling out of the stall (yes, it happens frequently).  We're pretty sure he's just kind of stupid.  But he's very sweet and pretty...

My logo is finally done and I got my pads!  Here's River's:

(I don't know why the pad looks pink.  It's not.  It's white with burgundy trim.)

My super-awesome BO designed the logo and is in the process of copyrighting it, so I think logo items will be available for sale soon :).