Riding
I rode Sunshine again today.
It was hot. Nearing 80. By October that’s hot.
Sunshine was sluggish. He did not feel like moving. That suited me perfectly. We did very little ground work, I remembered to tighten my cinch, then hopped on and rode.
After lapping the arena a couple of times we went into the yard, visited the mares in their pen still, then back to the arena. I thought it would be nice to head out a little ways. He thought every way but back to the mares looked pretty scary.
I was sitting there, working on giving to the rein, no bit involved so it needs a different name, or yielding to the leg on circles. He kept stopping and staring concernedly to the west, down the rows of bales. We were all doing good, just slow. It’s funny the two different horses who inhabit this boy of mine. Never know which one you’re going to get.
Then Juniper who was next to us, because she likes to come with and is always next to us, threw her nose to the ground, rubbing it frantically in the dirt and pawing at it. Anyone who has never experienced nose flies wouldn’t understand the trauma and panic that is induced when nose fly behavior shows itself. It is of course the wrong time of year for nose fly issues, that’s about two weeks in June. I’ve seen them react to bot flies as if they think it might be a nose fly. Who knows what else could be out there.
I swung a leg over and jumped off. Quickly. Again, if you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing nose flies while riding you probably wouldn’t understand.
Watching both horses for a moment I saw no more signs of concern in the horses, but still wasn’t getting back on. So we went for a walk up the lines of scary bales. Sunshine was having a processing day. He had to stand perfectly still and zone out while he took it all in for awhile. Juniper was bored sick with that. Eventually we made it around the rows of bales. I got back on and rode across the arena to the trailer to dismount. All in all it was a good riding day. Even if it’s miserably hot out.
