*Real* Wet Saddle Blankets!

Today was interesting...I woke up late (11:00) and my right eye was burning a little, so I checked my email and then ended up taking a little nap. My eyes haven't been as good since last Thursday when I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Craig left for class around 3 or so and at 3:30 I headed out to the barn. It was sprinkling just a little, and the roads between my house and the barn were soaked...but the barn was dry (even the driveway)...weird. I started transferring stuff from my car to my trailer/the barn and said hello to Kim. A few minutes later Hayley asked me if I wanted to go on a trail ride with them. My mind raced for a few minutes and then I said yes.

So I transferred everything to the trailer and double and triple checked that I had everything I needed to ride, especially after the stirrups fiasco of this weekend. Then I groomed and fly sprayed Sophie and took her out to the trailer. Kim and Hayley and Emily, Kim's niece were going. While I was loading Sophie Emily went to get Midnight so that Sophie wasn't hanging out in the trailer by herself...since she really was not wanting to be in the trailer by herself. On the trailer ride over Sophie fell in love with Midnight.

Once we arrived we got the horses ready. We decided not to tie Sophie to the trailer because she was upset on the trailer, though fine as soon as she got off the trailer. She's an odd horse, whinnying her head off and tossing her head, almost looking like she's going to rear when in her slot on the trailer, but as soon as I open her divider she calms right down and stands and waits for me to unclip her and lead her out. Once the horses were ready we mounted up and off we went.

The first trail we went on was kind of steep just to get onto the trailer, but Sophie went ok, though a little wary. Crossing water and the foot bridges she was good, but Midnight had to go back over the obstacle so that Sophie could put her nose in his tail to go over everything the first time. Kim led, followed by Midnight, then Sophie and I, and then Hayley. Everytime Kim trotted up a hill Midnight would have to break into a canter to stay caught up and Sophie was breaking into a canter every time Midnight did (or every time Midnight trotted). She was not letting Midnight leave her behind! There were a couple of places that they normally gallop up (very steep inclines, lol) that I wanted to trot (though I was thinking Sophie would canter them because she'd been cantering everything they were trotting), so Kim trotted up them and I followed on Sophie, and then everyone else galloped. Excepted Sophie didn't want to canter behind Kim's horse, if it trotted, she cantered, I think because she didn't love it as much as Midnight.

We rode for over an hour and by the end of the ride sweat was dripping off Sophie's stomach, and her saddle pad was soaked completely through. We let the horses graze a bit before loading them up to go home. Sophie freaked out about being by herself at the front of the trailer again, but at least chilled out when I got up there to take her out! I hate slant loads. Hate them, hate them, hate them. There is no feeling of being trapped with my two horse trailer complete with full sized escape doors!

I gave Sophie a good grooming when we got back and cleaned my tack. I also cleaned out Kim's trailer, because I was really grateful that they took me with them. It was a lot of fun and a great experience for Sophie. It gave me a chance to see her in a new place and rider her with horses that I knew were going to be calm. I hope we get to go again this summer, often! Lol. I was very impressed with Sophie, for the most part she was awesome, on the bit even, for a lot of it. I rode with contact for most of the ride, but light contact often and found that I wasn't pulling, and due to that, she was soft and round and listening, it was great. At the beginning of the ride she was doing a bit of piaffe and passage and collected trot, lol. But she worked out of it and was good. She's going to be tired tomorrow though. I let her walk on a long rein whenever I could, and as long as she was stretching her neck down and out she had as much rein as she wanted. But when she brought it up to look around we went back to light contact.

Kim and Hayley seemed impressed with how good Sophie was. I'm glad she was good, next time we can go a little faster at the fast sections and I'd be worried that if she was bad we wouldn't be invited to go along next time. So, here's hoping there's a next time, and soon! Though hopefully Sophie doesn't have as much nervous energy to burn. At the beginning Kim asked if we were working on our piaffe because Sophie was trotting in place due to me asking her to stay off of Midnight's tail but her not wanting to stop! By the end of the ride her saddle pad was soaked completely through and she had sweat dripping off her belly.