And from the 23rd to the 28th, I'm going to be horsesitting for Dusty and Piglet, so expect lots more pictures and, if I can figure it out, maybe even a little video of him!
Moving on... I officially sent in my Riga Meadow entry! Yikes!
Tango's been excellent lately, and I think he's finally beginning to get into shape. Yesterday we went out to topsmeade and did two 10 minute trots (I gave him about a minute between them... mostly for me, because my back was getting tired) and a little bit of canter work. He handled it like a champ and was barely even sweating when I got him back to the barn. A few weeks ago he probably would have just fallen down and put up the white flag if I tried to do that much trotting in a row. We also tackled a little natural water obstacle, which he handled very well. The entire beginning of the trail is flooded from all the rain, so unless you go through the water, you can't get into topsmeade... He had a little think about it, but he went in pretty willingly and then was more than happy to slop around in the huge puddles that blocked the path once we got out to the dirt road... progress? I hope so!
I've been taking him out on lots of hacks lately, if just to let him have a nice long cool down after a work, and I must say... the deer are out in FULL FORCE. On each of our last three hacks, we've spotted a deer. Today, as we walked down the trail in topsmeade, I suddenly noticed a deer peering at us. By the time Tango and I noticed it, we were only about ten feet from it. Tango and the deer each stared at one another for awhile and then... pretty much simultaneously... each one turned tail and made to get away from the other as wuickly as possible. Now... it's a VERY good thing that, for the most part, Tango has got a good head on his shoulders, because after his initial spook and spin, he sort of stopped and went, "Ok, well, I've got us facing AWAY from the monster... do I run? will it eat us?" I gave him a little pat and turned him back around, after which he just kind of said "Right, well that's done" and we both continued on as if nothing had happened.
So, the last part of this post is called "Motorist manners" because I was reminded today that lots of motorists don't know or care how to behave when passing by a person on a horse. As we walked down the road on our way to Topsmeade, two cars full of teenagers went speeding by, and as the second one passed, it began honking at us. Luckily, Tango doesn't care about things like that and didn't even bat an eyelash but it was still annoying. If I had been riding, say... Kestral, for instance, we would have been galloping off into the sunset because of that.
I just don't understand what people are thinking... you pass by someone who's riding a LIVING THING, which can sometimes be unpredictable and you BEEP? HOW IS THIS SMART? Then there are the people who pass by as about fifty miles an hour, don't slow down and barely even move over... if tango ever decided to shy or freak out about something, WE WOULD BE KILLED or at least seriously injured. It just really pisses me off when motorists are assholes and I felt the need to bitch about it.
I leave you with a photo from Tango's jump school last week... it was the only decent photo:
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