Training Tactics and Helmet Cam Fails

It's been a glorious few weeks back in the saddle, y'all.

I have involved myself in very little ringwork. The weather has been unseasonably beautiful the past couple weeks. There have been hot days, but on the whole it's been gorgeous with very low humidity. I finally have enough daylight to not be handcuffed to the indoor after work, no matter what time I finish up.

Runkle and I have done about fifteen minutes of  ringwork over a two week stretch because of this. I've definitely been riding, but it's either been on hacks around the perimeter or galloping in one of the fields. I've used this opportunity to test drive my helmet cam. It was cheap but it has great battery life and is really painfully easy to use so we'll just ignore the fact that it's crooked as shit (for now).

Yeah... I'm gonna need to work on this.

Anyway, it's fortunate I'm not alone in my arena hatred; several of my nighttime warrior friends also can't be bothered. Professional Unprofessionals strongly believe that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Since I don't want Runkle hacking down any doors in rage we do lots of play.

Does that even make sense? It does. I hope you're still with me.

We went out last week with some friends, another very green mare and our babysitter horse Shotzee (one of Runkle's besties). It went fantastic... for the first half. Runkle was a kick ride and I had him on the buckle. Towards the back half things got interesting; some horses in turnout were curious about our hack and came to investigate... at a gallop. Not everyone liked this idea and once one horse lost their rag Runkle gleefully joined in.

At one point I sneezed and everything moved so much it looked like I had a stroke.

A few days later Runkle and I ventured out with Shotzee and his mom again. There was significantly less (but not no) running. A pair of bros in a jeep with the biggest American flag I have ever seen drove past us when we were riding the fence line past the road and also were nice enough to honk to say hello. Everyone kept four feet on the ground which was shocking to all of us, even the lady across the street who witnessed the whole thing and commented that her horse would've left her in the dirt.

There's a deer that hangs around the farm frequently by herself, whom we have now named Samantha. Samantha the deer gives 0 f's about any of us and our hacking and she's extremely chill and doesn't spook the horses.

So we ran into Samantha.

Not shown: the other balloon that was low enough to start skimming trees.

Then a pair of hot air balloons tried to land in the field next to us. REALLY. And this isn't even my first run in with balloons at the farm! But Runkle was level and fantastic for all of it. I couldn't have been happier. And I didn't have to go to my follow up appointment and tell my doctor I rebroke my pinky riding before he gave me clearance and then a hot air balloon tried to land on my head and scared my horse. Because who wants to have that conversation with their doctor.

Most attractive picture of us, to date.

All of this has translated into a really excellent flatwork and magic canter transitions that are not trantering or exploding into the next gait. I'm pretty happy, with all of it.