In which an old friend returns to horseback riding, and there is training

Remember Duana?

She wants to ride more.

Also, Hana needs to get out and work more.

Do you see a great idea here?  I do!

"Come ride with us on Sunday!" I said.  "We're all a little out of shape; we took two weeks off from riding after Renegade so our horses could rest."

Du wasn't sure that taking two weeks off after riding the most challenging endurance event in our region made us "out of shape".  

Hmmm. 

Perhaps she has a point.  But anyhow.  We went, and the day was beautiful!

A little overcast in the morning, but no rain and no bugs.  Skivvies (above) was in her usual attire, but the rest of us were in t-shirts also.  The hay meadow is almost ready to be harvested.  I often see deer and coyotes here when I ride alone, but with a group of laughing ladies, all we saw was each other, and that was fine.

We also worked on training issues.  Shade (the gelding in pink gear, above and below) gets notional at times.  One of his main notions is that HE gets to drive.   Uh, no. 

It's a great feeling when the rider gets to drive...and doesn't need any reins to do it, either!

We also worked on "hugging" Fiddle.  The other horses were hesitant at first (especially Fire, who knows the extreme range of Fiddle's rear cannons!)  but everybody took a turn at hugging the dragon. 

Fee's response is so interesting:  she likes being hugged, even though she really doesn't like the mare that Sirie is riding.  You can see in the picture that I don't need to ride the brakes when we do this stunt anymore, thanks to Ryan.  

Thanks, Ryan!

Training issues aside, it was just a beautiful day for a ride. 

Duana said that if she can still walk on Monday, she'll come ride with us again next week.  

Hana will be so pleased!