A Day Off

Today I took the day off for a mental health day. It resulted in retrieving T's new video game prop, a really bad hair cut and riding Ashke.

Ashke wasn't very happy about being ridden. The wind was blowing and both Ashke and Jazz were jumpy and out of sorts.

About 13 seconds into the video you can see Ashke rear. At that point I got off and we went to the round pen to get some of the energy out of him. He cantered in both directions until he was tired and then we went back into the big arena and did more riding.

I'm not happy with my riding or how well Ashke is doing. J said that he looked out of sorts and I'm beginning to worry that the problem is the saddle. I'm going back to Down Under and talk to them about how the saddle seems to hurt his back every time I ride him. He hates it. We need to do something different.

We moved to the round pen and worked in both directions at a canter. Once he was moving easily in both directions, we stopped. Ashke was pretty sweaty. I rinsed him off at the outdoor pump, then walked him around the big arena. He was still wet but not hot, so we threw the blanket on him and put him back in his stall. Winter hair is a bitch to get dry.

Overall, I am not happy with our ride today. I'm not going to ride him tomorrow. Instead we are going to move him to an outdoor run and then I am going to Down Under.