This past weekend was my first one at home in over a month, and I made the most of it with lots of riding time. On Saturday Bobby and Halo came over to gallop!

I’ve already talked a lot on here about how amazing the giant field is at my barn, and I’m really not kidding. The footing is almost always perfect, the rolling hills are great for conditioning, and it’s huge (YUUUUGE). I also keep my coop out there to practice galloping fences (I still want to add brush to the top to give it more height, someday I’ll get to that). Bobby wanted to come over to give Halo a good gallop since my field dries faster than his (let’s be honest though, his real reason was to see me) which worked out fine because I needed to give him his birthday present anyway.

Plus, I won’t lie, it’s nice to have someone to ride with on occasion. My favorite thing about my barn is that there’s never anyone else riding when I am. I never have to share my jumps or my fields or my riding space. The flipside to that situation is that sometimes when you just need a good hackout and chat with a barn friend, there isn’t one. Or, if you ride a particularly lazy Henry who has no real interest in participating in conditioning rides until we get to the gallop part, it’s nice for him to have someone in front providing motivation (bc seriously I’m so tired of kicking to keep trotting).

We had a fun ride in the field, doing our trot and gallop sets together. We each popped over the coop a few times too, although by that point Henry had decided he was VERY FAST RACEHORSE and kept wanting to drag me past the distance. Someone will be wearing his Dr Bristol for XC schooling this weekend.

We went for a nice long walk all the way around the property after we were done, then hosed the boys off and let them graze. It’s so funny how even though they don’t live together anymore, it’s like they haven’t missed a day. They still love each other, but not too much.

Halo neighed a little when he got back into the trailer, and Henry watched him as they pulled down the driveway before going back to his grass. I swear I’ve never seen a horse that was so content to be alone in turnout. Henny does Henny, he don’t need no man. He definitely has a lot more affection for Halo than he lets on, though… Halo is Henry’s favorite horse to pin his fuzzy little ears at.

On Sunday (my 5th day of riding in a row – yay for being back to a normal schedule) I had a happier, more forward horse for our dressage ride. There’s still much clucking in the beginning to get him in front of my leg, but he’s getting more and more consistent in the contact and more and more rideable. Maybe it’s the green hat?