Three for All

I hope that I didn't sound down in my last post- to be honest I'm not. I believe that I am chasing the last of Carmen's demons and am pretty sure that I am on the right track. In a fit of bravery I sent in the entry form for the last show. We're doing First Level 2 &3. If we're going to crash and burn we might as well go down swinging. 

down in the scary part, not sure she could retract her neck any further

Saturday it rained all day- which was good because we really needed it. I used the day to catch up on some household chores and I made a batch of bread & butter pickles. 

love the sweet and salty flavour of these pickles. 

Sunday I had to wait for the drizzle to stop. It didn't completely but I decided to go out and ride anyway. My first plan was to leave Irish out but as I was bringing her in he decided that life was far too exciting and began to gallop about, charging at us and then ducking away. Carmen and I had a discussion about what she was to do when that happened but she was pretty good. So Irish was locked in his stall for the duration. I also realized that he probably needed a workout since he hasn't been ridden in over a week. 

I decided to lunge Carmen first. Usually I lunge to see her 'mood' and if she's quiet I stop. This time I decided to push her a bit to see how she would react. I worked her from the ground until I was confident that she was tuned in. It took a while but I was patient. That meant that when I rode she was more prepared to listen. She was difficult about the far end and I just rode her through it, relaxing and rewarding her tries. We did some canter departs and changes of lead and some lengthens and they were pretty good. 

After that I sent Ed a text telling him that I was done with Carmen but was going to ride Irish and I asked him to send Guinness out. I've been wanting to work on G being out while I ride and hack but haven't been able to prioritize it. Irish is well used to dogs being around so it seemed like a good time to try it. 

Guinness was a bit confused but really well behaved. He came in the ring but I sent him out and he sat outside. Interestingly enough Irish was freaked out by the same side of the ring as Carmen was. I am thinking that something has moved into the brush there. I will have to take the brush out and discourage this- I don't want any burrowing creatures near my ring. Down the road there are two cattle (cows or steers, not sure) and a sheep. I suspect it's a 4H project. Anyway we heard the sheep start to bleat and Irish kind of lost his mind over that. I realized the sheep was having issues because one hers (his?) herd mates was gone- a guy was walking one of the cows down the road. So I had to focus on keeping Irish's focus. No one does ADHD like Irish. In his younger days I would have been at risk and frankly I had a few moments when I thought I was going to be dumped by the 'old guy' after surviving the young one. 

Guinness came in to 'help' when I was getting after Irish and I shooed him out. He went out and thought about it for a bit and then came back in and tried 'heeling' to me. I let him do that because A) it was adorable and B) it is a useful thing for him to do. 

After I took Irish and Guinness for a short walk around the field. G was really good and stayed right behind us.  Irish was a bit stiff but tried to behave. I let him trot up the hill and he was all 'whee'. Carmen was less impressed with all this and was not happy being left behind. 

Not sure who is more bemused by this new development