Flying!

Summer is sadly coming to a close. Last night was only a measley 24 degrees out [celcius] Simply gorgeous riding weather, but in the grand scheme of summer-swimming-weather, its not all that toasty.

When I got to the barn I rounded up my cousin to ride with me. She starts highschool next week [nanner nanner.. butnotreallybecauseIloveschool] and she needs a good sendoff. When we got out to the barn her horse and every other horse except Mo, my darling loner was in the run in shed at the barn. While Chels caught Tripp I let Indy and Ivy in for their dinner. Once they were settled I went out to see about fetching Miss Mo, who was half way out.

The song on my ipod was sort of slow - Low Rider by Queen - so I switched to the next song which was [much to my ever-present amusement] Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake. My history with this song is such that every time I hear it, I giggle a little bit and it puts that extra bounce in my step. So, newly amused and energized I started jiving my way over to Mo, who until then had been ignoring me. Interestingly enough, when my happy attitude came up, my step became springyer and a smile worked its way across my face, Mo looked up and MATCHED my springy happy step to come over to me!!

I was so excited that I waved to Mo and continued on my way to meet her. We met halfway and I gave the obligatory hugs and scatches along with some bug swatting and then - at LIBERTY - we walked our way back to the barn! Mo was so enthused and happy!! I played with my stride on the way back and she mirrored me the whole time, and when we got close to the gate, I got her to put her foot in 'our' tire! It was so neat! We havent played that much with liberty due to lacking proper facilities, so to have that excellent display of relationship like that was a total unexpected JOY!

I finally haltered Mo at the gate, because Tripp was in the barn and I didnt want to risk upsetting him in the crossties. In the barn I brushed and saddled Mo - Chels and I decided on a trail ride. Based on Mo's pre-flight walk to the barn I deemed her ready to go and forwent any other ground play. I forgot my leather short girth at home, but I tried tacking up with Dakota's saddle anyways, with his girth. Ended up having to come back to the barn to change into her regular saddle as it just wasnt stable enough - kept riding up her withers!

Out on our ride Mo was a doll. Casual rein all the way. We played on the trails for a while then crossed the river and played in the long hayfield over there for a while. Then we decided to make our own trail in the forest-ish area .... THAT was fun. It was incredible. Mo had to play total bulldozer at times, with weeds as big as her! We stealthed through the foresty parts and wondered at the beauty in the glades. Eventually the skeeters came out and we had to turn back, but Mo had a blast across the river.

We crossed back to our property and went up the galloping trail where we saw the neighbouring hayfeild was cut and the hay was off. A significant glance in that direction from me was all it took for me and Chels to head that way!! We got to the end of the laneway and saw that the hayfield across the street was also cut, and baled in round bales [which make excellent point-to-points] and that field is actually three feilds all attached and with rolling hills... needless to say we changed tactics and went in that feild!!!

Mo thought that round bales might eat her, so we DID play point to point with four or so of them as we went, canter to each one, grab an [inconspicuous] bite and move on. In no time we were flying around the whole pasture..err... hay field. It was so much fun!

We cantered all the way to the other end and around and up the 'big' hill. On the plateaux we went around some more, weaving in and out of the bales and then got clever and decided to Man-From-Snowy-River it down the hill - which is not all that steep at all. Of course NOW is when I truly fly. Cantering down the hill, Mo sees her shadow and goes *oh no* and does her Mo-spook [patented] shifting to the right by a foot and a half without ever breaking stride. Me on the other hand, totally absorbed in enjoying the flight down the hill, forget to read my horse, missed the momentary *Oh no* and when she shifts [that delightful TEENY tiny spook that I adore about Mo because I CAN ride it] I end up in the dirt, on my ass. Nice!

Thanksfully, nothing broken, just a bruised bum, and I laughed while Chelsea caught Mo for me - who had taken in my WHOOHOO spirit and cantered to the end of the field. Mo came back happy as a clam and I mounted back up, carefull of my tender toushie... Oops. Bet I wont get that distracted again! ONE mistride to land in the dirt - ONE!

Of course none of that stopped me from continuing my canter journey all around and back to the starting point, back to the hill and all the way back again before cooling out. Mo was a TOTAL PRO at maintaing gait to!!! Something that I had HUGE problems with at the start of summer!! How cool!! I love having journals because then I can recognize PROGRESS rather than a vague "Oh this seems better?" kind of thing.

So, we flew together, I flew solo, and we flew together some more. I loved it, it was spectacular, and I was super high on happy endorphins all night and all day today :-)
Even though I had a really creepy vampire dream that I got turned and went against one of my best friends who was on the enemy Pirate team *sigh*


:-)
S

OH! AND MY PARELLI PATTERNS ARE SCHEDULED TO SHOW UP TOMORROW SAYS MY FEDEX TRACKING NUMBER! WHOOOO