Labor Day Weekend

Looking back at the last week we did GW wed., Thur., Fri., and then rode Sat., Sun., and Monday. Jessie had a pretty full week.

Saturday we went to the river and had a very nice 3 hour ride. Well, it was about 2+ and when we got back we rode in their arena for a bit. She was kind of a pill at first because it was just us. She settled down a bit and then the others came by and we ran some barrels. I actually asked her to gallop for the finish line and she did pretty good (although I could see a puzzled look in her eye because I've been working on the slow lope). She got in and out of the trailer very well. It was hot as blazes out there even at 8:30 in the morning.

Sunday was a bit cooler and we went on a six mile ride. I had my GPS watch on and we worked on speed control. We loped some big circles and her max. speed was 11.5 mph. We also did some long trotting and getting the two horses to trot side-by-side. We took pictures all three days. This one included Ranae side-passing to a sign that said "End" with an arrow pointing to Dusty's butt. We were laughing like jackals (well, maybe it was just me). We also set the timer and I had to ride up and get in the picture. We made it just in time.

Monday we had planned a long ride. It was dove season opening day so we couldn't leave real early (and we didn't want to). It was much cooler (87) with a nice breeze. We rode out tot he city farm. Between the fields of alfalfa and silage we stayed pretty cool. We rode out six miles and found a little mini-market for a soda and half a candy bar. We took about a 15 minute break and headed back. We worked on loping in this big field. I thought I could get Jessie tired enough to lope comfortably but she just kept speeding up. In contrast to Sunday her max speed was 15.6 mph. We kept at it for about 10 minutes and when she showed some slight improvement we moved on. (It had been a nice weekend and I was looking for a fight. She did pretty good on almost everything else. I'll just keep chipping away at this a little at a time.) We got home around 2 pm and cleaned all the tack and we were, all four of us, pretty whipped. Still had some weekend chores to do and after we got those done we sat in the garden for an evening cocktail.