"A canter is the cure for every evil."

I started a post last night but I was too exhausted to even post at all, soo.....here it is. : D Yesterday. Was. Insane. We are trying to sell stuff, like I said yesterday, for vacation in September to Florida. We had so many meetings, one lady didn't call us until the last minute and then she was late, kept talking..the other people picked it up, complimented Cowboy and asked if we had any other horses. Mom said yes, she has an App and I have a Quarter, and guess what they have?? Stinkin Gypsy Vanners. :O The younger girl said they really weren't worth it because the upkeep is terrible, but man. Vanners.

Anyways, mom felt up to going to the barn and possibly even riding, but once we got there and all of the horses were as far off as possible, and she had to walk a long ways, she didn't feel too hot. ;P So, I got Red. Thankfully he's one of those attention seekers to comes closer when I call, so he came to me pretty well and let me clip the lead on. I walked him down further and attempted to get on bareback so I could just ride him back..didn't work. I ended up throwing myself into his stomach.

In case y'all want to see what I looked like, that's pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday. I was just in jeans. Forgot to change out of these certain jeans that are soo not fun to ride in. Sweat+jeans that stick..yeah, can't swing my leg too far in those. Thankfully I was wearing a tunic so nobody saw anything ;)

After that miserable attempt I just walked Red back. He stood the whole time and just chilled like, "Okay, whatever. I'm just gonna eat some grass" and followed really well..got him back to the barn, said hello to J. PS: Our barbed wire is slowly being replaced with Ah-MAZING wire-no prickly wires!-and..get this-Big wooden posts. R built the most gorgeous, huge gate ever that goes into the 4 acres. Goodness, the barn gets prettier every single day..gonna have to take a pic!!!

I fly sprayed him, put MTG on his chest where it's BALDING again.  Grr...On the brightside it's almost Fall so he'll start getting a winter coat soon, so even if he starts reverting, it won't get too bad because he'll be fluffy! He never has problems then..Anywho, I also tried my new curry comb...with the magnets. I tried it on Cowboy first, who was ever so willing other than his attempts to take a chunk out of my arm..I used the massaging side on his chest and he loved it! Once I had curried Red I used it and he didn't seem as excited about it, but didn't dislike it. He just sat there when I did it and stayed still..

Anywho, brushed out his mane and tail..I did a more thorough grooming yesterday. His mane is getting so long :)

It's actually about that long now!! Woot!! Not as thick though, working on that

His tail, however, is still kinda scraggly and I want to improve that. I have high hopes for it come Winter time.

He did great for mounting today..mom held him and I hopped on with a chair..couldn't find a mounting block rofl. Once I got on we made about two laps around the driveway and as always we both got bored with it, so I got mom to open the gate to the babies' old pasture and we walked in..not sure how much land is in that but it's pretty large. The fence line follows the driveway and goes up to the road, so if you go up far enough the cars are right next to you..great challenge. :)) I took Red near there and he never flinched at the cars. Four people walked by, probably 14 or so, and one of the guys said, "nice pony" I quickly told them, nope, not a pony, and cantered off. Lol. We pretty much just cantered around the pasture..which is huge. First time we've ever cantered bareback. Woot!! Once he started sweating I just trotted..there is a large tree, probably a little bigger than a barrel, and I got him going into a quick canter and we circled around it, he acted like a barrel racer. Baha!! It was fun! We probably only got to ride for about 25 or so minutes because it took so long for us to get ready and it was getting dark, but we had a lot of fun. It was fairly hot, about 80 degrees, so I took it easy on him after about fifteen minutes of cantering/trotting. Mom had the phone so we only got a few pictures of us cantering back to leave the pasture..

Okay, pause-I'm SO proud of how is gait is evening out. He's really beginning to have a respectable gait with good footing now and before he was just so clumsy. I owe it all to good old fashioned WORK and actually moving into a trot and not just walking like he did when he was a lesson horse!!

After that I brought him back, unbridled him, took him to the gate after giving him some treats because he was SO amazingly good..seriously the best bareback ride we've had. He had a few barn sour moments because we had to pass one of the entrances to the barn, but this time he had no mini bucks like last time and he got over himself quickly when he realized his rider isn't going to let him do whatever anymore.

Whinnied to his franz

We let him out the gate and as always he refused to leave us. :)) Mom gave him a few kisses and I cuddled with him for a minute before he went along to the water trough. :) Such a good boy.

It's rides like this that I really feel like he has such potential and I'm so proud of how far we've come. Really helps make a day better. :)) Off to have another rough one today..wish me luck. Don't think I'll have barn time today. :/