What a lovely Sunday! Such nice, sunny, wind free weather. Rob spent much of the day with a work related project, which meant that I was able to ride both my lovely mares. Well...one was lovely...the other seems to be challenged by adolecence. I am sure many a parent has wished their child would hurry up and get past this stage as well...when you aren't sure to pity them for the struggles that the hormones bring, or shoot them. Although if Coregel breaks anything else before she figures out how to behave I am pretty sure I know which one Rob is leaning towards.

It was so hot out today that we removed all the rain sheets as the horses were all starting to sweat...well all except Brassy who seemed just fine in her rain sheet and liner. She reminds me of those frail old ladies who need sweaters in Florida to stay warm...aka: me.

Justice was the only one who was tricky to unblanket. Rocky and Dexter had made their way out back to enjoy the start of green grass, but Gody was apparently too chicken to go with them....so Justice was frantically running back and forth between grass and Gody. He was very stinky by the time we convinced him to let us catch him! The fascinating part was watching Gody though...apparently he has all sorts of energy when he gets upset; all sorts of hand galloping and lead changes.

The flip side of this means be prepared for the first dusty/muddy horses of the year as I am sure they will be enjoying plenty of good, long awaited rolls.

The horses would also like me to let you know that there is some green grass on the south side of the barn/arena. Coregel, Izzy, Lily and Brassy all got some time on grass today and they seemed pretty happy about it. Hopefully the pastures will green up and grow so we can get the horses on summer turn out soon.

And....Rob harrowed the outdoor ring so it is rideable! Lease rider's should wait until they have had a lesson outside before riding out there for the first time as sometimes the horses are a little peppier in the outdoor the first couple times. I will be starting to teach some lessons out there starting this week, although I think it is too early to be able to teach the 7:30 lessons outside, so we will still be jumping inside for the most part.

So this week will be in part about getting outside again, but also continuing on with riding nice clean turns, and being straight out of the turns. We are also going to be working on keeping the horse's body straight through changes of direction. As some found last week, learning to ride the horse straight helps with flying changes, counter canter and compressing/lengthening the strides in a better manner.

Karen