Summer is definately upon us- the flies are out in force and no matter how much flyspray you use, it just doesn't seem to cut it. Max is defiantely miseable and his tail seems to be working overtime to swat at the annoying little pests.
This weekend was a relative "light" riding weekend. I decided to try and get up early to beat the heat and was partly successful (I made it out the stables by 9:30). After tacking up, I decided to take Max on an extended loop through the Hansen Dam Basin. As I was getting ready to pass by a set of soccer fields, I noticed quite a bit of helicopter air traffic- interesting. As I got closer, I noticed that there was some sort of airshow involving helicopters and many of them were landing, taking off, and hovering.
My first reaction was "Great! something more for Max to deal with!" However, my fears were unfounded and Max pretty much ignored it all. We even had to wait about 10 minutes when the main trail was closed off so as to allow a number of helicopters to land (not that they really needed to do it- I think it was more of a CYA thing). Max was pretty calm all through it and he just stood there (if things had gotten out of hand, I could have simply turned around, so it wasn't a big deal).
When they finally let us proceed down the trail, Max was a bit curious and at one point shied away but it was easily controlled and Max then relaxed. We proceeded with our ride and it seemed that Maz was more concerned about some other horses that were ahead of us on the trail- I think he wanted to catch up but I wasn't going to let him. Overall, a good training experience for Max.
Sunday found Max and I in a group lesson and this too provided some good training. Naturally Max got a little hot as the lesson progressed but nothing too obnoxious (it's to be expected when your with seven other horses/riders). Max really performed when we went into the canter and he had no problem keeping up and I didn't have to work much on keeping him from advancing on the horse immediately ahead of him.
I like providing him with new training opportunities to things are not always "same 'ole same 'ol".
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