New Saddle Blanket!

My new saddle blanket came! And OMG, it's HUGE! I know, I know, I ordered the double blanket on purpose, but it's bigger than I thought it'd be. Opening the package was like unwrapping a rug to use on my floor. "I'm going to put this monstrosity on my horse?!" Yes, yes I am.

And I did. And it looked ridiculous. It sat like a weird wool tent on my horse's back. Oh no! It doesn't fit! Then I remembered that, duh, you have to break in new blankets. Whoops! Silly me. It still looked pretty big, though.

I saddled up anyway with my English saddle and went for a ride. A short ride, and a slow ride, as my back has not been happy recently. Cherry seemed perfectly happy in her tack, and the saddle blanket didn't seem to bother her at all, despite running all the way from withers to rump (I told you it was huge).

The saddle also seemed to fit better with the blanket. Before it felt like I was being tipped to the back of the saddle, but with the new blanket I felt centered and like I was sitting where I should be in the seat.

Oh, and it's PRETTY! The pattern is awesome, and the colors are great. The light tan matches my girth, the brown matches my saddle, the black matches my bridle, and the sage green doesn't clash with my teal stuff. Great success!

I did discover the reason the damn thing is so big. It's the oversize model! Not just double, but oversized double. Ohhhhhhh. Of course, I made this discovery AFTER I rode in it. Of course I did. Instead of 32X64, its 36X68. No wonder it looks so damn huge. It IS huge. There must have been a mix-up at the company, but it's too late to do anything about it now. It's hairy and sweaty and mine. That's okay though, I don't think I would have been as happy with a smaller blanket, but time will tell.

Maybe I'll use it as a rug if it doesn't work out as a saddle blanket.

Made a Decision, Sort Of

I've made up my mind on the whole boarding situation, at least for the time being. If something comes up or changes, I'll have to rethink it.

I've decided to stay where I am. For now. Cherry is well fed, well cared for, and I know she's looked after when I'm out of town. These are important things for me, and at the moment they are worth paying for. Especially now, with winter coming.

Winter is when things blow up around here, boarding stable-wise. There have been other barns in the area who've run out of hay, had roofs collapse under a snow cover, not fed enough, not bothered to provide unfrozen water, etc. Those things haven't happened here for the last three winters, and it freaks me out to think that I'd move and then be screwed.

If I moved now, right now, I'd only have a month, perhaps two, to regularly ride. I'm not sure if that's worth the hassle. If it was June, that might be different, but it's September. It'll probably start snowing in November, and due to plenty of hills and a crappy 2WD truck, I can't always get around so good once the snows hit.

So I think I'm going to maintain the status quo for a bit longer. Cherry is not suffering, so there's no need to rush. It's just me that's depressed over the lack of places to go. I'm just going to have to suck it up and deal.

If I continue to take care of Cherry, it's quite likely that she's got several years of riding left in her. No need to be hasty, 6 months isn't really that long in the grand scheme of things.

My Girth Smells Like Goat and Other Random Musings

I got my new girth! And it smells like goat. No joke. I opened the box and was like, "WTF is that smell?! Oh geez, it's the girth!" I supposed I shouldn't be surprised. It is 100% mohair, and mohair comes from goats. Just wasn't expecting to get a whiff of that.

Needless to say, the cat was thrilled and spent several minutes huffing the heady scent of goat BO. I guess that's how you know it's authentic!






Yesterday I trimmed Cherry, and today I'm soooooooooooooooore. There aren't enough o's to express how sore I am. My buns and thighs are sore from holding up her damn feet, my arms are sore from rasping, and my sides and abs are sore from who knows what. Just being alive, I guess. Sitting on anything hard, including the toilet seat and my saddle, just reminds me of how much I freaking hurt. If I had a bathtub that wasn't made for midgets, I'd have a soak, but since approximately 1/3 of me fits in the tub and submerged in water at any given time, I'm going to pass on that.

Oh, my finger hurts too from where I hacked it with the hoof knife. You know, before I got smart and put on my gloves. I'm such an idiot sometimes.




Today's ride did not help my soreness. Cherry thought it would be awesome to lug on my arms. Greaaaaaaaaat. They don't already hurt enough, please lean your gigantic head on them! Let me carry you, it's no trouble at all! You only weigh a goddam ton. Freaking horse.

The good news is that she's not sore at all from yesterday's adventures, and really wanted to careen around the field at Mach 10 after she warmed up and quit lugging on me. With her head in the air of course. Why not? After all, if I'm sore and tired I can't really make her work properly. Wheeee!!!!!!! And of course Energizer Pony just wanted to keep going and going and going and going.........



Ha! That reminds me. Cherry's nickname used to be the Energizer Bunny.

Because she just keeps going. Forever. She'd be all tired out on the trail, we'd walk and rest for like, 5 minutes and then she'd be ready to go again! Now she needs to rest for more like 15 to 20 minutes, but it's still nigh on impossible to tire her out.

Damn Arabs. Gotta love 'em, though! Now if only I could get me some of that, we'd be in good shape.

Trim #3: Great Success!

I might even be brave enough to post pictures this time.

Today was trim #3 for Cherry and me. I must say, today's trim went MUCH smoother and easier than the last two. Possibly because I didn't have to use the nippers and was able to rasp, scrape, and cut everything. It took 1.5 hours start to finish, and pony is sounder and moving even better than ever. Hooray!

I made some changes in my method this time around. Like I said, I didn't use the nippers, I only used the rasp and hoof knife. It's rained a little here recently, so Cherry's feet have softened up a tad, which made it possible for me to use the hoof knife.

I started by scraping away all the chalky sole with the knife. While doing this, I also cut away a bit of the frogs. They were sloughing off a layer, and I helped them along and scraped out a bit of fungus too. As I removed the chalky sole, I noticed that the bars of her hooves were way too long and starting to fold over.

Carefully I cut away some of the bars, and found underneath them a TON of nasty, chalky sole just begging to come out. Smelled lovely, let me tell you! Once I got the worst of the folded bar trimmed away, I finished scraping out the sole.

Sole scraped, bars trimmed a little and frog trimmed, I started on the hoof wall. I rasped it at a 45 degree angle to the plane of the sole. In the areas where the white line is still stretched I rasped it all the way down to the sole so no hoof wall contacted the ground there. This will give the lamina a chance to grow in tight without being pulled apart as the flare grows out. Where the white line was tight, I rasped only to the water line, or halfway to the sole.

The heels were next. Rasped one and then the other. Before I'd tried to do them at the same time, rasping across, but that didn't work out so well. Much easier to do one and then do the other to match it!

After that, I put her hoof up on the stand and smoothed the outside of the beveled edge I'd previously made with my 45 degree angle rasping. I didn't file the outside of her hoof wall any more than that. Just smoothed the edge of the mustang role.

Last time I filed too high up the outside of the hoof wall. She didn't go lame, but she lost a bit of the concavity that was forming and didn't improve on the gravel at all. So I learned, and this time only filed about 1/2" up, and only enough to smooth that edge.

I must say, this is the best her feet have looked in a LONG time! I'm SO HAPPY with the results of this trim. I think I'm really starting to get a feel for what I'm doing. There's much to learn yet, but this is the first trim I feel really good about.

Great success!!!!!

Breeches...........Are Not My Friend

I've come to the possibly somewhat premature conclusion that full seat breeches are not for me.

I've tried two pairs so far. The first one, Irideons, didn't even come close to fitting me. I swear they mislabeled an XS as an XL. I got them on alright, but they were painfully tight. Sent those suckers back!

Then I tried a pair of TuffRiders. The "full figured" version, which I ordered in tall. Tall? Ha! Tall my ass! I shudder to think what the regular ones looked like. These ones actually fit in the thigh and butt area, but the legs were soooo short! My socks barely covered the bottom. So I decided to try riding in them.

Well, first I had to get used to simply walking in them! That was a strange sensation, and I'm not sure I liked it very much. I bought them to ride in, not wander around in, so on to the riding test.

I must say that I LOVED how they felt in the saddle! Initially, anyway. Being gently "held" in place was AMAZING! I could really get used to that, which might not be a good thing. At the walk, all was well.

When we moved on to rising trot, though, things weren't so lovely. I'm used to my pants being more at one with me than my saddle, and I did not enjoy the fact that my breeches were hesitant to follow my ass as I posted. I felt like I was posting inside the breeches. Ugh! The seams also started to chafe my butt towards the end of the ride. I want to feel my horse, not my pants.

They also weren't as stretchy as I'd like them to be. Obviously the full seat material won't stretch, but the breeches themselves can! Oh well, these apparently aren't the riding pants for me.

Since I rode in them and got hair hair and dirt on them, I can't send them back. So they're going to be my spare pair of breeches or my "riding a new horse" breeches.

Ugh. Still disappointing, though. My Kerrits are still my favorite riding pants, and I'm awaiting the arrival of another pair of them. I opted for the bootcut ones this time, which have been described as actually long (gasp!) and like riding in yoga pants, which is what I would do if they didn't wear out so damn fast. Fingers crossed that these fit!

Stretches and Hand Feeding

I've been doing "carrot stretches" with Cherry for a few months now, and I think it's helping her loosen her back and re-align herself a bit. She also loves it. I mean, it involves one of her favorite things in the whole wide world, FOOD and EATING. She's more than willing to reach around to her flank (and beyond!) for a cookie or bow for a carrot. If nothing else, it makes her happy, and I enjoy hearing her back and neck pop.

The one reservation I have with this exercise is the whole hand feeding issue. Especially in the bow, where I have a treat between her front legs, her teeth come perilously close to my fingers. One time she almost bit me. I know she wasn't trying to bite, she was just after the treat, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have a hurt a whole lot.

This brings me to consider the whole hand feeding conundrum and how I'm such a raging hypocrite about it. I honestly believe that hand feeding treats to our horses can cause a lot of problems, but I do it myself. It's sad, I know. I do think that it can make them pushy, nippy, greedy bastards who will happily maul you for a cookie.

But Cherry doesn't do any of the above to me, so I think it's okay for me to hand feed her. Just me, nobody else. Because I'm special. And my horse is special. Oh dear.

I don't know how to reconcile this. I cringe when I hear or see others reap the negative consequences of hand feeding treats. Even Cherry got pushy about it after being at the riding school for two years and having her face constantly stuffed with carrots, apples, cookies, and whatever else the kids would bring. We had to have a "discussion" about it when we moved. As in, if she was a pushy brat, I would beat her sorry little butt. End of discussion.

Now she just resorts to looking cute and hoping to be fed. I'm ashamed to say that it occasionally works on me. I should know better by now.

But I'm still on the fence about hand feeding. I've seen hand feeding treats turn a horse into a monster. But I've also seen my own horse be perfectly sane about it. I don't hand feed other people's horses, and I don't encourage them to feed mine. But somehow I feel that I know my own horse so well, and I've been feeding her treats for such a long time, that it isn't a big deal.

I don't know. Cherry is such a mystery sometimes. Am I really that awesome or is my horse the amazing one who isn't a complete fuckup despite my idiocy? I'm leaning towards the latter, but I might be biased. Not something that's going to be resolved in the near future, that's for damn sure.

Best. Stuff. EVER!

OMG, I found my new favorite thing in the whole world. Passier Lederbalm.

It smells so freaking good! I opened the can today and just stood there smelling it. I even contemplated rubbing it on my skin like lotion so I could smell like it all day.

Do you think Passier would make this into a scented candle for me? Or a perfume perhaps? I would so buy it, even if they charged top dollar for it. Smells better than most of the designer perfumes that I've ever encountered!



My saddle is currently marinating in quite a liberal coating of the stuff. And it smells AWESOME! Then when I ride in it my butt will smell awesome and therefore I will smell awesome and and and AHHHHHHHHH!

Ahem, excuse me while I wipe the rabid foam from my chin. Ah, that's better.

Moving on. I'm hoping that not only will it help keep my saddle in good condition for many years to come, but it will also help solve the slick seat problem. I've heard that it leaves leather not exactly sticky per say, but not slick either. Anyway, I don't care anymore. I'll use it just for the amazing smell.

This stuff makes me want to clean my tack every single day, which is a feat in and of itself. I've literally gone months without even owning saddle soap.

Maybe I'll buy another can to keep at home so I can smell it when I'm not at the barn. Yes, I am strange.

Gonna Buy Some Tack......... With My Invisible Magical Money......

Well, not quite so invisible, but not as plentiful as I want it to be. Ha! Don't we all wish we had more money for buying tack! Or just more money in general.

I've made a couple decisions about what I'm going to buy. One is more tentative than the other. I KNOW that I'm going to buy a new girth. The one I've got feels cheap, looks cheap, and in fact was cheap. Less than $20. The buckles are cheap looking and the material feels a bit rough and gross. Turns out you get what you pay for, strangely enough.

So I'm going to trade in the cheap as hell "mohair" string girth for a real mohair string girth. Which costs approximately four times as much. *sigh* At least the ends won't be glued together and I'll know that it's actually made of mohair.

The other tack purchase I'm still a tad hesitant about. I'm going to get (another) saddle pad. Well, saddle blanket to be accurate. Isn't it pretty?!

It's a Mayatex wool double blanket. Folded over, it's the right size, something I CANNOT find in English pads for the life of me. And, of course, western blankets come in so many fun colors and patterns!

English pads come in white. And black. And white. And some more white. Occasionally navy blue or green is thrown in there to jazz it up a bit. *yawn*

I really like my other Mayatex blanket, but the single thickness just isn't cutting it for me. It fits better when I fold the edge over a bit, but I don't like the line this creates. Hence the double length blanket.

My only sadness is that it doesn't come in teal *sniff* But it does come in this lovely pattern, which I think will look awesome on Cherry.

The sage-y green won't clash with my teal stuff, and won't look hideous on my horse. But it's still sage-y green and not teal. Which brings me to a whole 'nother issue.......

OMG I need to find reins to match the saddle pad!!!!!!!!!! The girth is the same color as the light portion of the pad, so now I need reins to match too!!!!!!! ZOMG!!!!!!

How superficial am I? Very, it appears. But I have few pleasures in life, and coordinating tack is one of them. Scratch that, I have many pleasures in life, but matching tack still ranks pretty high on that list.

Now I just need to figure out how to make all that invisible magical money I have become real money that tack stores will accept.............

Sad Face.... Oooh, jinge bells!

A friend of mine and fellow boarder moved her horse today. I knew she was leaving, but I didn't expect her to be gone so soon. Oh well. I'll miss her, and her horse. It's always sad when a friend leaves the barn, but I'm no stranger to that.

The first, and by far the worst experience was the first time. When Kate left GPS with her TB mare. We were trail buddies, and she was my best friend at the barn. I missed her so much. I like to think Cherry missed our trail rides together, but I'll never really know. We were such good friends, I suppose we still are, but I haven't seen her for ages. We managed to meet up and ride between our barns, which was awesome and super fun.

Back to the present, this girl and I really got along. We had very similar outlook on horse training and what was right and wrong in the world of horses. Enjoyed riding with her, talking, laughing. Someone I don't want to lose touch with.

I went to the barn today to find her horse gone and the pasture empty. *sigh* I was sad. I'm always sad when a friend leaves the barn. It seems to happen often to me. Being the last one there, the last one to leave.........

Anyway, I saddled up my horse and rode. At least she can't leave. That's the one constant in my life. I decided to put Cherry's rhythm beads on, I thought the jingle bells might cheer me up.

And I was right! I love the jingle bells. They bring me joy, and I'd probably wear them myself if people wouldn't look at me funny. By the end of the ride I was laughing and not so sad anymore.

I'm still sad about my friend being gone, but I know I can deal.

I Don't Need More Tack, I Don't Need More Tack

But I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gah! Why can't I be content with what I have? I only have about 3 horses worth of tack, if not more. Shouldn't that be enough?

Never!

What really sucks is that I don't quite have what I really want. When I have what I want, I'm happy and don't feel the need to acquire more. But when something is slightly off, even if it's functional, I'm not happy and thus stay on a constant search for new things.

What's bugging me now, you might ask? Saddle pads. I've FINALLY got a saddle that I love and would pet and squeeze and name George if it wouldn't get me locked away in the loony bin. The trouble is, I don't have a saddle pad that really fits it.

My old AP pad is both ludicrously small looking and uncomfortable for Cherry. As you can see, the panels rest right on the back seam of the pad, which then digs into her back. Good times!


















This is the "for now" saddle pad that I got for $20 from Dover. It's plenty long enough in the spine, and even has a nice, high wither clearance, but the front is cut fairly straight down. My saddle has forward flaps and thus they poke over the edge of the pad. At least this setup only bothers me, Cherry couldn't care less.



BTW: That's the huge-ass wither cut-out sticking up in front of the saddle, NOT my horse's withers.












I've been looking at oversize AP pads, but they are elusive at best and come in crappy color choices. Boo! This one, a Fritz Somthingorother, was suggested, as it's got a 27" spine AND a forward cut front. But alas, it only appears to come with red trim. Ugh! Red looks awful on Cherry. Why can't it come in plain white like the picture?








Another option is trying to find a contoured pad, a la this Toklat one. I need to measure my saddle to see if it will even come close to fitting. What a pain in the ass long thighs are. Even if my ass was smaller, I'd still need a big saddle to accommodate my ridiculous leg.









Right now I'm stumped. I had no idea buying a new saddle would mean buying a whole new kit for it. I mean, I knew about the new girth, that was a given, but a new saddle pad too? Oh, and new stirrups, but I kind of needed them anyway, regardless of the saddle purchase. My ankles and knees thank me.

Someone else suggested an Aussie or western type saddle blanket. At first, I was like, "Pfft! You can't used a western pad with an English saddle! Der!" Then I thought about it a little more. Why the hell not? Actually, now that I think about it, a girl at the barn used a folded navajo pad with her close contact saddle. Hmmm, I also like the idea of wool, it's by far my favorite pad material, but it isn't used so much for English pads.



My biggest concern with a saddle blanket is the whole wither clearance deal. I don't want the pad to bind Cherry's withers, and I have yet to see a contoured saddle blanket. I think it's worth a try, though. At least trying it out won't cost me any money. I already have a wool saddle blanket (which is fantastically, garishly teal) that I can use. If I like it, I might abandon the English pad altogether.






Here are my criteria for my ideal saddle pad, in no particular order:

• Fits saddle with no part of saddle poking over pad
• Isn't too ginormous, as horse is small and easily swallowed up by a large pad
• Comfy for horse
• Doesn't change fit of the saddle, it fits and I don't want to fuck with that
• Comes in fun colors, preferably teal
• Looks nice and is aesthetically pleasing to me

Basically, it's got to fit, be comfy, and look pretty. If it only fits and is comfy, that's okay, but I do have to look at it. If it's only pretty, that's right out. I have one of those already. *sigh* I guess I'll just have to keep looking around. As much as I love tack shopping, I love having tack that I like even more.

Some Groundwork Fails

I tried to do some groundwork with Cherry the other day, and failed miserably. Reading through some dressage training exercises, I came across the shoulder-in volte. Oooh, that sounds advanced and complicated. I wonder what volte means! Oh, it appears to mean "circle". That's boring. Why can't we just call it a circle then? Doesn't sound awesome enough, I guess.

Shoulder-in circle. Doesn't sound too complicated. It's supposed to get them to stretch their back. Sounds good, let's try it!

I read the instructions thoroughly. Didn't seem too difficult. Get the horse going on a small circle at a slow walk, encourage him to really step under with his inside hind, then bring his shoulders in.

So I tried it. And failed.

The circle part was no problem, and the stepping under bit also went smoothly. Bringing the shoulders in? Not so much. Cherry was extremely confused. Granted, I was doing this with a halter and not a bridle as suggested. The thing is, I couldn't decide on the bitless equivalent for this exercise, hence the halter. Not the best choice, it seems.

I contented myself with just doing the step-under circle, excuse me, step-under volte, and gave myself over to contemplation. Why did that little experiment fail so badly? Why did my groundwork not go as planned?

Then it occurred to me. What groundwork? Aside from leading properly, disengaging the hindquarters, and a crude, bastardized version of join-up, I haven't done any groundwork with Cherry. After teaching her to NOT run me over and drag me around, I considered groundwork to be done. What I taught her nearly a decade ago is all she knows, and I certainly haven't done anything since.

That explains that!

I haven't decided what I'm going to do about this, if anything. Part of me wants to do more groundwork just so I can get better at it and have the knowledge in place for the next horse. The other part of me is lazy as hell and doesn't want to bother. We'll see what the winter brings.

New Techniques (that I should have known long ago)

Well, hardly new. More like new to me, as ashamed as I am to admit it.

You know how I said I was done training Cherry? I still am, but what I didn't expect is that I'm certainly not done training ME. In fact, my own training has been woefully neglected ever since I bought Cherry. My riding lessons turned into horse training lessons, and all the focus was on Cherry, not me. It was all about her reactions, her training, and her learning. I was a mere accessory to this. Not good, I know, but it's done now.

Alright, what the heck am I talking about here?! I had an Aha! moment on the whole concept of release. How long have I been riding again? Oh, that's right. Plenty long enough to have learned this years ago. *sigh* Better late then never.

I've known about release and all that for a long time, but not really how to use it properly. Release over fences, after a half halt, blah blah blah. That's all it was to me. Kind of a vague idea that I tried to implement, but never knew if I was doing it right. Like the whole "inside leg into outside rein" concept, it took me forever to figure out because nobody really explained it.

It seems like all my years of dressage lessons and clinics and book reading hasn't really made sense to me until Right Now. All the knowledge was there, but how it all fit together and worked was not. I've been having many small Aha! moments in the last few months, but this one was particularly grand.

So how did I make this wonderful discovery?

http://www.sustainabledressage.net/

More specifically

http://www.sustainabledressage.net/rollkur/work_stretch.php

I LOVE this website, and I really agree with a lot of what this woman talks about. The use of force to get the horse to do your bidding is wrong, and creates tension where there should be relaxation. Some of it gets a little repetitive and heavy on terminology, but for the most part, I find it to be an amazing collection of articles.

Reading the Work & Stretch article really opened a new door. For years, I was taught that the release came after the work, and most importantly after the work was through. Work happened in long stretches, and the release followed these long intervals. "Teach Cherry to LIKE walking," was a lesson I vividly remember.

In the article, the author talks about how the release should come very frequently, after EVERY burst of (correct) work. Her interval was 1-2 minutes at the max. Huh?

When I first read that, I admit I laughed. Release every couple minutes? Are you crazy? I'll never get my horse back to work again! One of my problems is that Cherry likes to jerk her head down and yank the reins, not stretch slowly down and out. Then it's tough to get her back. Maybe, just maybe, she does this because I don't let her out often enough and her neck is tense and cramped. Hmmm...........

The author goes on to say that self carriage, collection, and being on the bit is hard work. I suppose she's right. Horses don't naturally travel like that, so it stands to reason that doing all of these things is effort for them. Hence the frequent release. Reward the effort with a chance to relax.

So I tried it. And I was amazed.

It worked. It worked really, really well. I started small, releasing when Cherry asked to stretch down. Usually she likes to do this after backing up or any lateral movement. Any jerking on the reins was met with immediate re-establishment of contact and work.

Pretty soon, she'd stretch down when I offered it. We even got one or two really nice, full down and out stretches. I'd let her stretch, then I'd gently close my leg and take back the rein. And she came back! That was a moment right there in and of itself.

This was all at the walk. Moving up into trot she was a bit tense, but I got her to relax. Not the full stretch, but she did reach down a few times. Hopefully she'll get more comfortable as we go along. Canter was amazing. I didn't really want her to stretch, but by this point we'd done a lot of stretching and she was relaxed and moving well.

Another thing I noticed though, our transitions need a lllllllllllllllot of work. Hoo boy do they suck! Didn't notice this as much when we were out of balance and not working correctly most of the time, but the contrast between nice, balanced canter and nearly falling into a walk was amazing. I see it now, and I need to remember my half halts.

I think the joint supplement is helping too. Cherry is much more willing to step under herself with her hind legs now, and yesterday (the day of the Killer Quail and Other Monsters), she was feeling pretty damn good. I rode for nearly two hours, and she was just as perky at the end as she was when I got her out of the pasture.




Maybe this new realization has something to do with my decision to ignore the damn horse and work on my own riding. No, not maybe, definitely. If I ride correctly with clear aides, my horse will come along with me. Gee whiz, really?! Of course, it's so simple, why did it never occur to me before? Perhaps the very simplicity of it makes it difficult to grasp.

Riding is not complicated, it's quite simple in theory. However, it is extremely complex with deepening levels of sophistication and refinement. But it's not complicated, and I think we screw up the most when we try to make it so.

Riding Today.... aka "Everything is Going to EAT ME, Mom!"

Today's ride started out awful. The scary corner of the arena was extra super scary, and most definitely several demons lurked there waiting to devour us. Surely. Then there was the scary horse-eating patches of light. You know, little patches of light that shine through the holes in the arena roof. They were EVIL and had NEVER BEEN THERE BEFORE OMG!

Well, I suppose they were new, but still. Seriously? It's sunlight. Even worse than the light patches? When the light patches DISAPPEARED! They were going to attack and EAT us! Actually, Cherry's shadow fell across the sunbeam. But we almost died, for serious.



Slow progress around the arena was made, with much snorting, shying, and cursing (that was me). Being the moron that I am, I decided to leave the relatively safe confines of the arena and venture outside.

Outside was pretty damn scary too. The roundpen, that has been there, like, forever, was naturally plotting our doom, as was the pile of scrap wood, which also has been there forever. You'd think that if either of those things were going to kill us, they would have done so already and our bones would be scattered on the ground, slowly bleaching in the sun. Oh no, today was different, today we were surely going to become tasty dinner for the hoards of Killer Quail and Arena Demons that lurked in the shadows.

I am proud to admit that I didn't get scared! Cherry was a complete twit, spooking at everything and rolling her eyes at grass blowing in the wind. But I didn't freak out, I didn't dismount, and we actually had a pretty damn good ride! I am now celebrating with a glass of wine. *yum*