Couple rides

Rode Riv on Friday... he was pretty good.  It was pretty windy, but it didn't bother him. The Mare was actually more distracted... the sliding door at the far end of the arena blew and banged as we were trotting by and she spooked and stared distrustfully at it for the rest of the ride.  Which lasted about 5 minutes because what's the point in riding a totally distracted mare?

Horses had Saturday off (because I forgot I had a dinner to go to), Sunday off (because I work like 14 hours, and I spent 2 hours waiting for/seeing the vet who was called out for a horse I used to ride a lot), and Monday off (because I worked for 8+ hours, cleaned 9 stalls, fed dinner, and trimmed a jerk horse's feet).

So I rode Tuesday... after half an hour of morning chores, 9 hours at work, cleaning my old guy's stall, and trimming two horses.

Princess was pretty good yesterday.  He's getting snotty about the whip, so I have to be careful.  But he was giving and reaching to contact pretty well after a while.  And not too long after that, he started getting sloppy, so I think he was just getting tired.  We started with walking leg yields and turns on the forehand and shoulder fore.  Shoulder fore wasn't great, but he was trying to figure out what I wanted, so that's all I can ask for.

Mare was funny...  When I ride, I lead her up to the mounting block and get on without touching the reins.  She walks off as I'm settling, and I just let her go, leaving the reins on her neck while I futz around on my iPhone.  So she walks to the end of the ring, tracks right for a couple laps, turns up the centerline at A, and then at C she tracks left.  I was so tempted to just sit there and see if she'd starting taking up contact on her own, too.

I have to ride 3 more times this week and 4 days to do it.