Venturing out

Lance and I have gotten in some good work since our lesson with Julie, in spite of a crazy schedule on my part. I jealously guarded a small window of time for riding this evening in between homeschool co-op in one town and Brian's fencing lesson in another.

An aside. Brian was a little snotty about my wanting time to ride, saying "I didn't know your horse was so important to our family." I told him that I get up before he and his dad do, stay up later than he and his dad do, work three part-time jobs, cook, clean, shop, and provide Mom's Taxi Service. My horse time is necessary for me and my mental health. So YES, time on my horse IS IMPORTANT TO THIS FAMILY BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT TO ME!

Brian asked if I wanted to ride down the road with him. He finally saved up enough money to buy a nice bicycle, so he wanted to ride it while I rode Lance. Given the unpredictability Lance has developed when being ridden off property since all the neighborhood construction projects started, I had some questions about the wisdom of this idea, but getting out of the arena with its rapidly drying sand footing sounded like a good idea. So down the road we went.

We did a combination of riding and leading. When Lance got tense, I got off and we kept going. When he settled down, I got back on. Overall I think it was a successful outing, with a few small dragons slain, a change of scenery, quality time with my son, and exercise for all. Lance and I finished up with some trot/canter work in the arena (we just walked on our road ride), and called it good.

We're supposed to get a little rain over the next day or so, which should improve the footing in the arena.