HOT & HUMID
Now, I am not one to whine when the weather is hot but I just have to mention that it has been rather sticky and steamy lately. I much prefer this to snow, sleet and rain but a little bit (just a little) would be great. The other thing that comes with this type of weather that I really don't like is the bugs. I have been scratching a darn bite on my thumb, of all places, all day. At least that bug didn't live to see another day as I smacked it into oblivion after it got it's bite in.
If I am whining about the weather and such, that means I have had a chance to get outside.
We spent most of Saturday at the Knox County Horse Park observing (that means we did not enter), the Extreme Cowboy Challenge. It was fun to watch and not have be nervous about competing. They had tons of new obstacles this time. Most of the riders did not pick up much speed since there were so many obstacles fairly close together. Let's see if I can remember all of them.
0. Go down big drop off.
1. Pick up a jacket off of a pole. Get red ribbon from pocket of jacket.
2. Back through a hay tunnel--almost every horse had problems with this. I am a little surprised with how much the backing obstacles mess people up.
3. Put the jacket back on another pole.
4. Trot/canter to tree and tie ribbon (from jacket pocket) onto string hanging down. The tricky part here is that alot of the horses did not want to stand still. Oh, and there was a fake deer standing there too.
5. Cross over a tractor tire on the ground. ---this was REALLY scary for most...the horses must have thought something would eat them from within the tire.
6. Go up the hill and then over four log jumps and through the cowboy curtain.
7. Go to mailbox and take out mail
8. Cross big ditch filled with water and cross two big mounds of dirt.
9. Go and ring bell hanging from post
10. Pick up tennis ball from one pole, pole bend four poles and put tennis ball on last pole.
11. Move through wooded area that includes turkey decoys and rough terrain.
12. Jump up the first big drop.
PHEW...it tires me out just typing all that. Really it looked like a lot of fun. They had about 25 riders. It is only $15 to enter and the winner gets a nice belt buckle. They seem to improve the event each time. They had a fun raffle for stuff (I won two things!) and a really nice concession stand. Brenda even tried fried bologna for the first time. My only criticism is that the announcer is hard to hear and could do a better job getting the crowd excited about each rider. Maybe I am too used to Craig Cameron and his blend of funny comments and educational pointers as each rider is riding. The experience would be really good for the audience too if they had an announcer giving some riding pointers along the way...and praise for good horsemanship too.
We rode at Glacier Ridge on Sunday for a couple of hours. The trails are easy there. There are no big hills or scary water. Most of the trail is through fields with some woods. The only thing to look out for is an occasional deer or two (or several as we have found out in the past). Most of the time the horses don't care, but if they are running it tends to spook them some. Rio and Doc did very well. Rio didn't want to continue in the lead early on but then decided it would be okay. No major horse misbehavior.
We stopped at our friend Liz's house afterward for lunch. She now owns Brenda's old horse Dancer. Dancer was besides himself that he had friends coming to visit. When he discovered that one of them was Rio, he nearly went out of his head. Rio, who had been fine up until then, went into heat at the sight of Dancer. She proceeded to perform all the lovely mare in heat signals, slighly shocking the new horse owners in the crowd. We had separated Doc and Rio from Dancer but that didn't work well as Rio and Dancer wanted to be together and Rio kept kicking Doc. Apparently she was trying to tell him to back off, Dancer was the one for her. So we put Rio and Dancer together and all was fine. They didn't leave each other's sides. Dancer threw a fit when Liz and Brenda went out for a ride (I had to leave for a little bit and was gone). All of his previous buddy sour behaviors came out in full force.
The rest of the day was uneventful...just HOT!

Summer Riding
I just got back from vacation. A week of sun and sand at the Outer Banks. It was great but I seriously went into horse withdrawal. It was really strange to have all that free time and not spend it in the saddle. Needless to say, I went right to the barn as soon as possible yesterday.
Rio was great yesterday. She came right to me in the field and was relaxed and listening the whole time. I have been working on directions--moving off of my leg and steering at faster paces.
I feel like I need a specific goal in order to make sure I am working on things that will improve our riding. Rio was different today--a little more bent out of shape about being taken out of the field and away from her buddies. She settled down and listened but I still felt like I didn't have a specific goal in mind.
I haven't written about some of our rides prior to our vacation. Brenda and I participated in a horse show sponsored by the Franklin County 4-H advisors. It was held at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in June. We entered several classes. We figured out that FOR SURE neither of our horses are Western Pleasure candidates! They both behaved very well but we were definetely out of our league in some of the classes. I ended up with a couple of ribbons. We didn't do as well in trail class as I would have hoped. The lope portion really created problems....did I say we needed to work on steering??? No doubt!
We also took a trip over to the Knox County Horse Park to goof around on the Cowboy course and ride the trails. It was a windy day but nice overall. We rode the trails and were doing fine until we came upon a slight incline. Rio was in the lead and decided that a bear would eat her if she went further, so she proceeded to whirl around and try and go back. I kept keeping her toward the trail and even got off and walked her down the trail to try and ensure her that there weren't any monsters laying in wait. After much persuasion, we eventually got the horses down the trail. The key is patience and a willingness to let your trail partner work through the issues.
We went through the obstacles on the Cowboy course with relatively good results. The horses were a bit spooky--especially at the very DEEP and muddy water crossing.
We eventually met up with some other riders and rode some trails for awhile before heading for home, barely missing a BIG thunderstorm. Rio was a pain as she tried to eat everything in her way. It didn't help that we were in a big field and that everything was at mouth level for her. It would be like us going through a big field of chocolate lollipops and not being able to eat (or taste) them. I didn't let her eat as that is one of my rules when she is under saddle but boy, did I feel bad for her.
Next week we are on to one of the Cowboy Challenges-not sure if it will be Wayne County of Knox County, or even if we will bring the horses. Sometimes it is just more fun to watch others suffer through--I mean have all the fun!