Sweat Shop

It was somewhat warm yesterday, and terribly muggy. Curt was gone to look at a new foal of a friend's but was supposed to be back to help me get started, so I gave myself what I estimated to be 30 minutes to lunge Sandy. I've been working him an hour from the ground, but he was so tired when I climbed on the day before that I thought I'd give a shorter warm up time a shot and see just how he went a little fresh.

But Curt didn't come back. And he didn't come back. And the 90 minutes he'd thought he'd be gone turned into 2 1/2 hours. I'd just put Sandy in his stall (still saddled) when he came walking into the barn. "Long way up to that breeding facility!" Yes, it's true. I didn't realize the mare had been brought up to Bennet Woodland, which is past my place, to foal out. Had I known that I'd have realized it would take a few hours rather than half the time.

I pulled Sandy back out of his stall. I'd worked him to the point of being sticky, but not dripping in the heat, so the edge was off but his energy was definitely not gone. Rather than doing some circles and figure 8s at the trot first, Curt had me move almost immediately into a lope to see how he'd do. While he picked the lope up far more readily, almost before I asked, he sure was feeling more energetic and his strides were longer and quicker. At one point he thought he'd try to spook at the "Got Gunk" poster thats been hanging on the wall the past month, but I pulled him back on track.

We did a lot of loping before slowing down to a trot, then worked our figure 8s. Curt was happy with what he was seeing and called one of the gals out of the barn to watch.

"He's a smart son of a..." and he didn't say gun. "He's very teachable, this horse." He went on to say, "If the judges were going to mark you on this ride somewhere between a 60 and 80, they'd probably give you a 71 or 72...that's pretty good. You done good. If it were my horse, I'd quit here for the day." And he walked off to let me cool down my now dripping wet horse.

Only a little bit sweaty...

Please say your prayers for Sandy! Ask God to find him the perfect new home so that I don't need to worry about him :)

Join the Hay Burner's Club and donate $15 towards Sandy's upkeep and I'll send you a 5x7 photo (once the horse is here, of course.) Or buy advertising space in the form of a button.