Up, Up, Up, Down

Trottin' belly 

I started taking riding lessons at an English riding barn in Maine when I was 5 years old. I still remember the instructor's chant as I trotted around the ring on my barn favorite, Ruby the chestnut QH mare: "Up, down, Up, down, Up, down" as I learned to  post. Those lessons stuck with me and I have done a gosh darn awful lot of posting on dozens of different horses over the last 20 years! Thing is, every horse has a different trot and I realized this morning as I cruised my Blazer boy through the the neighborhood that the more accurate trotting chant in this case would be: "Up, up, up, Down, Up, up, up, Down" as he has the loftiest, most ridiculous trot in the world. For a 14 hand, short coupled horse he actually has a huge stride and trots an average 8 mph easily just like Desire, but when he gets a wild hair, or sights in on a darker splotch in the pavement, he shortens about another six inches and my butt is thrown literally a foot+ out of the saddle to post him. It's really easier to grab mane and stand! 

 Stand tall as we prance along!

So I had a beautiful, cool morning cruise with either a ground covering business trot or a Lippizan-worthy prance, alternately. I hit the perfect time of morning where work traffic has left and near-noon traffic hasn't started, so the dirt roads were dead quiet and I got a lot of trotting in, covering about the same distance as I did yesterday on Desire, but ten or so minutes faster despite over a mile of pavement to walk on. The woolly man was sweaty but by the time we were walking home he was all dry and fluffy again.

 Eyeballing the Neighborhood Terror, Donkey #1.

It's a beautiful warm day so Blaze got a bath and then gave himself a prompt dirt spa follow-up. Rain is forecast for the next few days and I am happy to say I *finally* finished stripping my 6 giant stalls down to bare bones, ready for winter. I still need to decide what sort of bulk bedding to invest in, I'm leaning towards shavings but they sure aren't cheap!

Hope everyone is happy that the election nonsense is over and is out enjoying this beautiful weather like I am!!