After church, while the guys made brunch (gasp!), I saddled up Windy in her English gear for a short ride. Looking at the picture now, I see the noseband and bit look too low and yes, I need to find a real English pad. But anyway.... Just for the heck of it, I am planning on going to a show next weekend and to make the most of my time there, thought I might enter an English pleasure class. This is quite a gutsy move on my part as I have had my butt in an English saddle only on a handful of occasions. "So why now?" you might ask? Capital City Horse and Pony Club is now offering classes for age 35 and over. I have no delusions that there won't be better riders than me, but just hoping there is fewer in the class which would make the overall ride less intimidating. In addition, I think the canter in English pleasure is a little faster than the lope in western pleasure which might be easier on both of us. I can then scratch it off my bucket list, but it isn't really on there. Just a whim and I may still talk myself out of it before it actually happens.
What other classes might I try? Maybe western pleasure. The lope makes me nervous because she is quicker. I can just see me running someone over. We have been working on hitting the correct lead. Not saying it happens every time, but I am starting to get the feel of it. So maybe…. There is also a walk/trot class which I entered last year. Because it is an "open" class, it was huge. It is still an open class, but I might try it again. With so many in the class, no one will really be watching if I screw it up too bad. I'll try the trail course and a few of the speed events. Of course I reserve the right to change my mind at any time.
I spent yesterday afternoon grooming. No halters required; the horses were pushing each other out of the way for a little time with the brush. I love it when they turn their head toward me as if wanting to groom me, too. I always get a little nervous when Butter does that; it would be just like her to nip me a bit. We have a long way to go for them to shed out completely, but it's a good start. The knots in Windy's mane, shown in the header picture, are no more.
The big pastures are officially closed now until early to mid-May. We hope to get it fertilized in the next couple weeks and then give the grass a chance to grow. Now that we no longer have cows, pasture management should be much easier and there should be less overgrazing. I did let them graze in the north yard for awhile yesterday. Ritz was innocently watching but a little later, we found the horses on the other side of the fence. And the dog was happily on their heels. He usually only bothers them when I am around; he may have earned himself a time out when the horses are in this area.
Temps dropped from almost 80 to a brisk 53, with winds gusting over 30 mph. Welcome to Nebraska in the springtime.
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