Somebody has a taste for speed...

Nom-ing and looking noble.

I've been working UK pretty consistently this past week. Riding either early or late to escape the heat. I was at the barn a lot in order to cover for Sally who owns the barn. Her sister lost her battle to breast cancer and Sally had her wake and funeral to deal with. 

Wednesday I had a bunch of my fellow boarders helping out, and we all decided to ride before it got too hot. I decided to be lazy and tacked UK up western as it was too hot to wear half chaps. Jean was borrowing my saddle so she could jump Maggie over some small crossrails. We were having a great ride when all of a sudden, a loud noise made us all jump. UK spooked, but stood his ground when I asked him to. Maggie however spun and dumped Jean. The noise was a tree falling in the woods beyond the ring. 

Right before the tree fell.

 Jean was all right and got Maggie settled eventually. As UK seemed to be none the worse for wear I put him back to work. Just for laughs I decided to see how UK would be a turning around a barrel. He did pretty well at the trot, but really couldn't grasp the concept. Then I let him gallop. This is the first time since he had the Lyme disease that he's had enough energy to try.

Boy did he light up like a little kid at Christmas! At first he was reluctant, then I felt him tense up and then release. He's pretty fast! And he is quick to respond too! Right about the time UK and I were having the most fun, he tripped and I realized that I forgot to put on his bell boots... Oops!

Thursday I rode him english and put him back to regular work. He was pretty good, but was having a heart attack about a small pile of dirt just outside of the ring that wasn't there the day before. I got him to work past it, but his spookiness combined with a bit of an attitude was wearing me out. We'd been jumping a bit, including over a jump with planks that UK was hating. The last time over, UK spooked in mid-air, dropped his left shoulder and went sideways. I landed on my hip, and then got back on UK and made him do everything again.

Friday I decided that it was time for UK to go back to boot camp. We did some lunging work, and when he still decided not to respect me we moved to the round pen. Eventually he gave in and admitted that maybe he should listen to me. We wrapped up by going for a nice long hand walk to cool him off.

He got to chill in his pen for a bit and then I let the barn girls practice their braiding skills on him. He was nice and patient, even dozing off for a bit.

Barn girls practicing their braiding skills on UK.

I later hopped on him bareback to do some show and tell. The barn girls wanted some pointers, and I was planning on teaching them how to do an emergency dismount. After wowing the girls with my amazing thighs and my bareback posting ability I taught them how to do an emergency dismount.

UK's had the last two days off, as I was in Millbrook yesterday and had stuff to do around the house today. I'll cover Millbrook in a second post!