I Guess I'll Rest When I Am Dead

So much for a quiet weekend...

Meg and I spent Friday cleaning out the pickup and horse trailers and for some odd reason I decided to throw cleaning out the garage into the mix. We gave Moon and Rip a little ride to stretch their legs and had intended to turn them out to pasture for the night, but the 3 dinks were already out and I couldn't get them caught.

See, the thing is...The horses got into a bad habit of playing 'Indy 500' while we were in Arizona. I have no pens on that property, so the whole lot of them had the run of the place and thanks to the big bay...catching horses became a bit of a chore. It actually got so bad that the day that Crystal and I was going to ride in the desert, I ended up having to jump on Frosty and rope Moon. I was mad enough to spit nails that day. Poor Crystal...If nothing else, her time with us was nothing if not 'interesting'. LOL.

This time instead of deploying Moon and Rip and getting in a little roping practice...I put Megan on the 4-wheeler. Horses want to play 'Indy 500'? Okay...Game On!!!

Forty-five minutes later....Three very tired and sweaty horses had given up the idea that running to the far end of the pasture was a good idea. *I* never had to run a single step (smirk). That big bay will be lucky if he ever gets the privilege of pasture time again and it sure won't be with any friends. He's the instigator that gets everyone running away...even when you are not even trying to catch his dumb ass.

Saturday morning, Meg and I loaded Rip and Moon and went to a local play-day (gymkhana). We had loads of fun. Moon was pretty sure he was being tortured. It's been many years since I have actually used him on any speed events besides barrels. He was rather shocked after the barrel racing to have to go back into the arena several more times and do other 'stuff'. There was only one event I asked him for any speed in though and it wasn't even the barrels. I kept him well under control for the barrel racing. I was looking for good pockets and smooth turns, not speed. Moon has really been cheating on his footwork through the turns, so I took advantage of a competitive type setting (and a $5 entry fee ;-) to work on that. Where he really surprised me was in Pole Bending. Moon hasn't been on a pole bending pattern in 5-6 years...not even messing around at home...and he loped through quite nicely with a time of 27 seconds. No...He'll never make a great pole horse...He's far to long strided to get through a pattern with any real speed. If I opened him up, he'd make the first couple of bends and then just stride right on by a pole or two. LOL. But making him go in the arena and work a bunch of different patterns accomplished what I wanted...Moon started paying attention to me again and having to respond to what I was asking him to do. It was a far cry from his usual routine of go in work for 17-18 seconds and be done. He was one tired pony by the end of the day.

Sunday morning was 'go to work with the hubby day'. He just needed to do a few reports and check on his location, so I rode along. This is his office...

He has a stellar view from this location...

After that, we came home, jumped on his bike and spent the rest of the day tootling around the country. It was a beautiful day for a ride and so nice to spend an entire day with my hubby.