I haven't ridden much in the past few days...my barn owners were out of town last week and I was picking up afternoon chores. And thanks to Murphy's Law, I was slammed at my regular job, so by the time I did chores I was too exhausted to do much with Buddy or Zoe.
They both got turned out Saturday and Sunday in the grass pastures. I've turned them out together, and so far they seem to get along fine. Since they haven't been out much yet this year, I only put them out for a couple hours. Both days they were pretty easy to catch to bring back in, but I could tell they weren't happy about it. Yesterday I grabbed Zoe and started walking both ponies in. She stopped, and I when I gave her lead rope a yank, she walked forward and bit the back of my arm. Man did it hurt!
I smacked her with the end of the rope, and we had a long discussion about proper behavior. All the way into the barn I had her head right by me, with a hard hold on the lead. I have a faint bruise on my arm, but its swollen and every time I touch it it hurts.
Today I put Connie's dressage saddle on Buddy, along with a different bit. I usually ride him in a slow twist bit, but since that's not legal for dressage I put him in a french link. I've ridden him in a french link before and it worked fine for flat work, but didn't give me enough brakes for jumping. He threw a major tantrum. I don't know if he didnt' like the saddle (Connie used to ride him in it all the time, and it seems to fit fine) or the bit. I ended up getting off about half way thru the ride and putting the German martingale on. It helped, but he was still pretty hot. Nik is going to ride him tomorrow, and I'm going to try to lunge him first.
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