Me Thinks the Dog Days Have Arrived

We had company visiting us over the weekend, on top of the fact I had to work on Saturday morning. Add to this that is was well over 100 degrees and extremely humid (for Calif), there was little riding time available. Saturday afternoon we even broke from tradition to escape to a movie theater for an afternoon of cool.

I knew if I was going to get a ride in it would have to be early Sunday morning. I got up around 5:45 and got ready. It was still hot. Jessie gave me the "You gotta be kidding me" look which entails her retreating to the farthest corner of her pen and "hiding" from me. Despite that, she still met me in the center of her pen and I took her out and got her ready to ride.

We mostly trotted. We also did many transitions from the walk to the trot and back to walk. The farmers were setting up a new field for irrigation and they have these portable pumps that make a lot of noise and leaked water out of a couple of different connections. Jessie stayed focused on me as we rode by. Once out on the development we loped and did a few rollbacks. We found a couple of obstacles to circle and then headed for home, trotting most of the way back. As we rode down the canal I would pick up on a rein and tip her nose as I pushed her shoulder in the other direction. And so we rode in diagonals back and forth across the canal road most of the way home. A ninety minute ride where we got a lot in.

She got a nice cool shower and a big breakfast when we got home...and so did I.