To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Hot pink and prunes

This morning I rode Horton over much of the same ground his owner and I covered together last week. I was going to ride him out and about yesterday, but by the time I got to the barn it was dusk and Horton was decidedly NOT interested in going on a "trail" ride at suppertime! So I rode him in the arena. He ended up getting one remedial lunging session; I don't think it was so much an “I'm DONE” balk as it was an “I want to stop here near the other horses” balk. It earned him the same results, though. ;-)

Not all my riding clothes have pockets, so I picked up this little cell phone holder recently. The ability to summon help should Horton and I part company is important – even though I'm not planning on ever needing it.

When Sylvia and I went riding last Tuesday, we picked and ate some prunes along the way. At Sylvia's suggestion, I gave Horton some, too (sans pits; the nice thing about prunes is that they are freestone). Today when we got to the prune trees, Horton stopped and turned his head, ready for his hand-out! I obliged him, but he wanted more and searched on his own.
He seemed to like the leaves as well as he liked the fruit!
Clearly this boy is a quick study, so I'm counting on him becoming a good student sooner rather than later.

No comments: