Ahhh

Well, riding class was a bit of a disappointment today. Sparky round penned Red (who may be getting a new name, as "Red" has been a placeholder name anyway. I didn't think it was nice to tell everyone his name is "That Little Mudder Frucker") and got him pretty well worked in before he rode, and he did pretty good. He even got a lope without having a rodeo, which everyone cheered. Monkey didn't do bad either, for having been ridden once since the last semester. He's stiff to the left again, but he'll work in as he gets back into the swing of things.

I'm changing bits on him, to a short shank snaffle. He's working well enough on the ring snaffle that I think I can transition him, and it's a bit that I've wanted to try on him for certain communications issues, as well. I'll keep the ring snaffle handy, of course, because I need to get him bending again, and that is accomplished with the ring snaffle better than a leverage bit. The next time I'm home I may steal the extra headstall and just have one with the ring snaffle on it and one with the short shank.

Feed crew next week, which is going to suck, but it'll get it out of the way. I think I'm going to see if I can trade my next one for one later on in the semester, so I don't have to do both in the cold. We'll see if I can accomplish it.

I'm also taking care of Red this weekend, along with Monkey, because Sparky is going home to celebrate his birthday with his family on Saturday. I told him I'm not gonna ride for him, though.

And now I need to go pop a couple of Advil for the stiffness, make myself a cup of hot chocolate for the chill, and curl up with a good descriptive paragraph and an excerpt from Brokeback Mountain (the book, not the movie) for Creative Writing.

Ya'll will have to wait for a really good blog post until I get settled back into the swing of things. Or until AD gets the next installment of Star of Life reconstructed, whichever comes first.