L A Z Y

Yeah. Remember how I said next time I rode Tiki, I'd put my spurs on? Well, I didn't, lol. I rode Reley and Audrey first, so by the time I got to him, I was a *little* tired. Today, there was a fair amount of cacaphony. The next door neighbors have pine beetles, so they're having to get all of their pine trees cut down. They have a LOT of BIG pine trees ... right on the fenceline, eeek! Yup, they were cutting those down. The boy had a day off yesterday since I rode his bootie off on Monday.

He was literally sleeping when I got him out of his stall this morning. Got down to grooming, and found a touch of rain rot on his hind legs. Picked the scabs off, wrapped the legs up, tacked up, and led him up to the big ring (it still hasn't rained, so footing is ok to ride on). This was his first time up there ... good view ... HUGE pine trees crashing to the ground and the melodic sound of chain saws singing in the breeze.:) I was careful, and had put on his ear bonnet to muffle sounds. I had on no spurs since I figured he'd be fresh after a day off, and all the activity buzzing next to the farm. Uh, no. He wasn't. Dismounted, went down to get my spurs on, then mounted back up. He was a SLUG today, wow. I think the hot weather is definitely going to take away his "Wheee" factor. I was USING my spurs, no doubt. Did some basic w/t. Cantered both ways; didn't miss the right lead the first time. Worked a figure 8 at the canter with simple changes; that was pretty good. Trotted a few more laps, then asked AGAIN for the right lead. Took 5 times, but he got it. Circled, kept the spurs pressing, then let him walk out. I didn't do anything "fancy" ... just worked strictly on STRAIGHT. At the canter, he wants to pop those shoulders and lie on his side. Worked VERY hard on pressing the inside leg to outside rein, and keeping his body not leaning. We did pretty well.:)

He's very footing oriented. I can NOT recreate his gaits from Patchwork at home. There are some days he just feels fantastically wonderful, but nothing like the few times he's worked at Patchwork. The big ring has fill dirt in it right now, and though it's not terribly hard or soft, there are quite a few decent size rocks. He steps on a rock, and he's gimpy. I still apply venice turpentine to his feet periodically when the pastures dry out, but I'm not convinced it's helped him at all.:( He's not lame anymore since he does have shoes, but on any 'iffy' surface, he's very tight and small strided. Oh well, just more for us to work on, and more motivation to me to make sure any time I can borrow a trailer, I'm motivated to use it.:) Had a good time today; I was pleasantly suprised at how wonderful he was. He looks SO pretty in his new bling browband I got from Dover for my birthday!