Nothing interesting to really blog. All the blogs have slowed down, and traffic has died down here. I know family members check in every once in a while and a few friends out of town. It’s just slow here.

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On saturday, I had a lesson on Miss with Mere. Lesson was productive, felt accomplished. Miss was …hmm.. B-. Because of the heat, she had had four days off… so she was a little fresh. I’m trying to figure out how to say this next part…. Mere said I have improved greatly on fixing things faster. Basically I don’t let Missy get by like I used to. Part of it is that I am stronger and more knowledgeable, but also I am more confident in my relationship with Miss. Mere also hopped on the Miss, which I love. One, I like seeing her ride. It helps me pick up on subtle techniques of her riding. and two… she feels my pain. The good part about Mere… she never downplays, or under-estimates what I am going through. She ALWAYS gives me credit for doing the best I can do on whatever ride I’m on. She listens. When I say I’m tired, I’m done, I want to go again, She’s leaning on me, I’m afraid, I’m hurt… whatever. Actually our relationship is so close now, she reads me really well without me saying. She actually switched with me cause we still had more work to do with Miss, but she could tell I was getting too fatigued to be effective.

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Went to the new barn and hopped On Elvis. We played lead pony for her to do some work with Ella. Ella is a good good little pony just getting started. I absolutely LOVE doing the ‘lead pony’ stuff. Elvis is almost as good as Cook. (almost). He would never kick and he’s easy to slow down and sped up without changing ur gait. I say ‘almost’ ’cause cook is just so natural to me to steer and change gears that I don’t really have to pay attention to what she is doing underneath me. I can turn around and watch behind me :-)

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I rode today, even though Mondays are my usual day off. The rest of the week is gonna be so hot again, that I don’t want to give them days off when it’s “cooler” … “cooler” being under 100. We don’t have any showing planned until September so this week I am making a concerted effort to just sit to walk trot work and let them have a mental break, especially Miss. I feel like I am really hard on her, wanting and expecting progress and engaged, active effort each time we go out. I want her to have a few days of just trotting around, on the buckle, all over, no steering exercise.