May 19 2008

Well I had quite the interesting evening. I ate dinner with the family and then headed out to Darold's to get some grass hay from him for Sinwaan, to start acclimating him back to hay so he won't have a shock to his system at the ride next weekend. Lara showed me her new mare Grace (who is lovely) and while we are chatting who pulls in the drive but Thad and Jenee'. They said they were there for Darold but we visited a bit. When Darold showed up we learned he was planning to breed one of his Paso mares to a stallion who had never bred before and needed some assistance. Lara and I chatted some more and took Grace into the round pen so Lara could show me her gaits. She has a nice smooth jog and lope and even though she was advertised as a huntseat horse, we think she will be a better western pleasure prospect. Lara rode her bareback and then I rode her bareback shortly and then we took her back in the barn. Lara then tacked up Imaginn for her evening conditioning ride and off she went. I hung around and talked to Jenee' more and watched this novice stud try and get his act together. It was interesting.

After that I sped down to Sinwaan's barn in Milton-Freewater and came into town there at 7:20 pm. I quickly groomed and tacked up Sinwaan in his Abetta saddle this evening. Boy did that saddle feel strange. I thought I had better get another ride in it before I try and tackle 25 mi with it soon. We only did about 3 miles tonight. He was being a little barn sour, but not too bad. When we got about to 1 1/2 miles we were trotting along at a good rate (where I usually canter) and all of a sudden he spooked at who-knows-what and dove left, which means I was propelled foward and to the right, then he brought up his head fast to get a better look at whatever was ahead of us and BAM our heads collided. I was sure glad for my helmet. I got a mild headache immediately but otherwise no harm done. He was acting quite hesitant to continue up the trail, but I made him walk, a few steps at a time, in that general direction. Because dusk was setting in, and I never know what big cats might be lurking, I decided to turn around and head for home. Sinwaan was being really spooky after that, dodging all over the place at things he never would look twice at in normal daylight. We did a lot of trotting and one short canter. His trot headed for home is so big and fast I have a hard time posting it, so end up generally standing in the stirrups. I slowed him down every so often and he was responsive so that was good and I didn't have to turn him around to get him to listen to me tonight.

After he was untacked and given a little grain for a treat, Kittee made her way out and we talked about what to do with him so he could eat his hay. We decided to put him in the paddock (no grass) for the evening with a new boarder, Calvin. Calvin is a TALL Appaloosa that is only 3 years old and already 17.1 hh. They seemed to get along pretty well from the start so I wasn't too worried about them. Kittee said she would feed Sinwaan his hay in the morning before he was turned back out onto pasture. This will be his schedule from now until we leave on Friday.

I brought home my saddle pads for washing and hope to have everything cleaned and packed up by Thursday.