Quickie

We rode early today, on by 8:45 am. A brief ride to the top of the mesa and back.

Still so green. At least for Colorado

We trotted and cantered as much as we could. All of the uphills were at the canter and then we would stop and let them catch their breath. Ashke and I led at the canter on the way out. Cali led on the way home. Ashke and I had a very nice canter, after a brief fight, when Cali was in front of us. I refused to give in and refused to allow him to act out to get out of having to ride second. We had a bit of a canter where he switched leads very stride for five or six strides and I just kept asking him for a nice, relaxed canter. I had to hold him pretty tight on the ride home, using my legs and abdominal muscle (I only have one) but still had to have a pretty tight hold on his mouth to keep him from racing past Cali. We piaffed all the way home. Or at least trotted slower than Cali can walk. He was grey and dripping sweat when we got back to the barn.

There is a pond at the top of the mesa. At this time of year, usually, it is a small mud pit, but this year it is huge. It has long pond grass and ducks and today it had five pelicans.

I guess Pelicans summer over here, having their babies on the huge mounds of wrack the Parks people anchor out in our lakes and ponds. Pelicans nest on mounds in the middle of ponds and lake (even man-made ones) to keep their fledgling safe from foxes. I think it's wild to find Pelicans in Colorado.

This was the distance between Cali and Ashke for most of the ride home. He HATES IT.

 

Last note of interest: Thursday night riding I was walking back toward the barn from the dressage arena to drop off equipment before tooling around the property with N when we surprised a skunk. Ashke looked at the skunk. The skunk popped up on it's tiptoes, head in the air and tail straight up. It was the cutest thing ever. Then the skunk turned and went back down to the creek.