Last Thursday my niece was visiting from Utah so she rode Jessie and I rode Dusty. It was pretty interesting watching someone else on Jessie. My niece is 18 and has had some English riding, but still inexperienced. Jessie took good care of her.

We did some groundwork on Saturday and had an early morning ride on Sunday. Jessie did "okay". We worked on FTC a little at each of the two locations we practice. At one she actually did a complete circle. I'm trying to keep the sessions shorter (since the long ones didn't produce much.) Ranae has been working on groundwork since Dusty dumped her again two weeks ago. I'm hopeful this time she will really commit to it and I think she has because she pulled the DVD's out herself. I get to sit out there and watch her and offer my feeble insights. It's helping me learn too.

Sunday, our friends, who Ranae usually rides with, took their new 5 Yr. old mare, fresh back from the trainer, out on a ride. They had ridden on Friday and everything went fine. On this day, however, she dumped our neighbor. One of our friends chased two of the horses back the 2 miles back to our house. We then took the truck to pick up the rider and his wife. I walked home with the other neighbor and one of the horses. This horse is pretty sensitive and they just come out, tack her up, and go. It frustrates me so much, it is one of the reasons I don't ride with them anymore. I guess he bounced on the ground pretty good. He's sore, but nothing appeared broken.

This morning Jessie and I did some GW. We had three or four exercise cards to work on, but she got stuck on chumping me on the C-pattern exercise. It amazes me she still kicks up. Anyway, she made it a much harder workout than it had to be. I hope she learned from it.