Rain, rain go away!

It has been raining here almost every day for the past six weeks! I'm starting to get a little tired of it, let me tell you. In fact, it rained 22 days out of 30 in June. July isn't shaping up to be much better. We have had some nice days, but they are few and far between...

It is pouring again today.

(Yes, we have a tipi at work...)

Ugh. The barn and pastures are a mess. I haven't taken any pictures of Rusty lately, because everything is just mud. He will need a canoe soon to get around if this doesn't let up.

This weather has been brutal for local farmers as well. Trying to get hay in with this weather has been a nightmare. Probably half of the fields I pass in my travels (in the past 6 weeks) have hay cut and it has just been left lying in the field. The farmers are slowly working at raking it up or baling it anyway and just tossing the bales in a corner of the field to compost.

My barn owner (whose property is really wet to begin with) hasn't even attempted to cut hay. She needs a couple of dry weeks before she can even take a tractor out on the fields to work. Last year, she cut the hay, but the quality was so poor that she was only able to use it for bedding (instead of straw). Hay and grass are such important commodities in the horse world...

*********

As I may have mentioned, I was sick for two weeks and wasn't able to ride at all. I had my first real ride on Monday night. We had a lesson and it went surprisingly well. Rusty is so reliable that it is nice to not have to worry about getting on a wild bucking bronco.

As much as he is easy-going, he is a bit stubborn about some things. He really has a hard time moving his shoulders. We can get that big spotted hiney to move without any problem, but the front end is a bit stuck. We aren't sure if he maybe has a bit of arthritis, so he is stiff and his left eye isn't 100%, so he is a bit resistant to turn that way.

We did a lot of work on building the turn on the haunches from a standstill, as well as walking and trotting "square" corners. (Not sure if there is another name for that or not). By the end of the lesson, he was moving much better. I'm sure a percentage of our problems come from my inexperience. I didn't learn the turn on the fore/haunch when I was young, so the cues for that are all new to me.

He also has a few old school horse tricks that get me from time to time. I'm often so busy worrying about cues or my leg position, that he will pull something else and get me off balance. He likes to stick his nose out, let himself hit the bit and use that as an excuse to slow down. I have to work at catching him before he does that. When I focus on paying more attention, he stops trying that and we can get some nicer gaits going. I can't get mad at him when he does stuff like that, because he is just so cute. He really does try hard - he's like a kid in school that doesn't really want to be bad but can't help himself sometimes. These little tricks of his are really helping me learn to pay attention more and how to work around little problems.

I have also been cantering a fair bit and working on my trot-canter transitions. It is satisfying to feel that starting to come together more as well. We can only canter a half circle well before things start to fall apart, but I still feel like I am making lots of progress.

My new saddle is due any day now and I realllllly hope it fits, after this long wait. I'm hoping that a better fit for both of us will help in many ways. I'm also planning to buy a nice black wool saddle blanket to go with the black suede seat. Rusty looks really good in black for some reason. Although, I'm sure the white horse hairs on the black blanket will drive me to drink, but I'm sure I'll survive.

It's supposed to rain all weekend, so I may have to go back in time and post some pictures of my New York trip that I meant to post a month ago! I hope everyone has a good weekend!