After receiving a ton of rain on Saturday, Sunday dawned nice and sunny with a slight warm breeze. My usual Sunday lesson had been cancelled due to the arena turning into a lake so I was on my own.
I decided to put in some more time with my new/used Western saddle so I decided to do some general riding with a little training thrown in.
I spent about a hour doing various manuevers, galloping, cantering, trotting, leg yielding, et al. in the driven dressage area. I also managed to do some laps with my trail riding partner (he had to leave early so we weren't going on the trail) and it was nice to see Max get perked up following his "girlfriend" Chenault (she's the other horse in the picture of the bathtub).
After my partner had left, I would up going on a short trail ride with another friend who was beginning to train her Rocky Mountain horse (named Pudding). She's a real sweet horse and eager to learn the trail. It helped that Max was in the lead and she worked off him. What was really nice was that Max was ver calm and sedate and in fact, it looked like he was falling asleep walking the trail.
My riding partner noted that with the new/used saddle Max appeared to be very relaxed. While I attribute some of this to the nice 70s-ish weather and it being sunny, it was revealing that coming back to the barn, Max was just as relaxed and his pace was exactly that going out. Who knows, maybe he was hurting from being in the English saddle so long that he wanted to get home and get it off his back.
I then rode over to the Orcas Arena by myself and to do some cantering. Once again, Max was pretty relaxed and we did some nice cantering. Returning home- same story- very relaxed.
Maybe it was the nice weather or me not being in a hurry but I do believe that buying the Western saddle, as opposed to a 1904 reproduction McClellan saddle was the right choice.
Definately a good riding day!
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