Decompressing

I had  lesson on Thursday, and Buddy wasn't at all motivated.  It was the same issues we've had over and over...trying to get him to go forward and I have to ride every stride.  I think that since we've stepped up his work over the past couple months, Buddy has started to burnout.  After the show this Saturday, I'll give him a couple weeks off with just some easy hacks and field rides.

Rick was able to mow the field this weekend, so we went out tonight for our first ride of the season!  The field felt great, but the grass still needs to be mowed again so it'll be perfect.  We should have room for 3 different arenas...a flat ring, a full sized dressage court, and a large (200ishx300ish) jump arena.  The field is a clover/rye grass mix and pretty flat.  Hopefully we can start moving jumps out in another week or so.

Because of how the property is laid out, we had to take the long way to ride out to the field tonight.  The short way is still pretty wet, with some standing water.  By going the long way around the property, you have to open a gate.  I rode Bud down to the gate, got off, opened it and went thru then had a problem.  I can get on Bud from the ground western, but its a lot harder English.  I had to lengthen my stirrup but I was able to do it.  While trying to shorten my stirrup after I got on, Buddy started walking away.  I meant to pull on the reins, but ended up pulling my stirrup off my saddle. 

I couldn't get it back on while mounted, and was too lazy to get off and fix it, then get back on again.  So I put it over my shoulder, and dropped my other iron and did our ride without stirrups.  We mostly just walked the field, looking for holes and getting  a feel.  We did about 3 minutes of trot and
Buddy felt very forward and  happy. I'm hoping the field rides can help him decompress and refresh him.