A Quick Sandwich Ride

Yesterday, we had high winds.  Tomorrow we will have rain and cold blustery winds.  Today, we had clear, sunny, calm and cool sandwiched between the other two days.  We were up at dawn's early light to do chores so I could ride before work.

Jackson was in a happy mood, eager to work, eager to run.  He was a bit too eager and kept trying to charge forward even during our walk warmup.  I took up the contact and put him to work sooner than I usually would -- I could see that if I didn't, he would get sillier and sillier.  We worked on leg yield squares and that settled him after his initial protest of not wanting to concentrate.  Running backwards when I ask for "step deeply to the side" isn't how you get gold stars.  It was far from perfect; his butt would go over and then I'd have to move his shoulder over to catch up; or vice versa.  He nailed it a few times and I praised him enthusiastically.  I have to get the timing just right on my aids because he reacts quickly with the wrong thing otherwise.  I have to concentrate.  I have to ride every step with focus and intention. 

We did some changes of bend at trot to work on looseness.  He didn't understand at first so I had to ride the line of being clear and firm with the line of letting him figure it out.  His trot was very nice -- smooth, very forward and responsive.  I felt like I was riding a sports car.  There was coiled energy flowing through his body and he was ready to surge forward at a tap on the accelerator.  I didn't.  Instead, I used the energy to get beautiful trot work.  When we had completed a fair amount of relaxed strong trot work, I asked for canter.  He didn't ya-hoo on me - I waited until he was firmly grounded in his brain before I asked.  The transitions were decent and although they are still far from good, they are definitely improving. 

He felt like a sassy sound horse today. A sandwich with the works.

Thar She Blows!

The Santa Ana winds starting blowing last night.  These winds blow in October and November, coming across the desert, and shoot the fire danger to "extreme" in the blink of an eye.  They gust at 25-60 mph so you can imagine what that would do with a fire, not to mention how dry they make everything from your lips to the piles of manure to the dry grass on the hillsides.

The sky is a beautiful, clear blue.

I thought the horses might race around a bit when we let them out for breakfast but they were more interested in food -- although Jackson did throw in a head toss and a grunt for good measure.

And look at how filthy Jackson is!  He's got the dry wind in the tail static thing going on too.

Kalvin was impatiently waiting for his hay.  You can see him chewing as he walks around in anticipation.  You can also see the wind blowing the Italian Poplars.

The goats were excited -- it was like Christmas with all the leaves and twigs blown into their area.  Forget the hay!  They went for all the debris.

Cowboy and Bella played tug-of-war with this cottonwood branch.

The wind blew leaves all along the fence line. 

Whiskey found his own personal stash.