Asia

No pictures, but I had a lovely ride on Asia this morning. It's been almost a month since I rode her last, but I didn't worry. I fed her and the eight other horses at the barn this morning, turned the rest out, and loaded Asia. She walked right on her stock trailer. True, I had to walk on in front of her, but for a mare that six years ago would freeze up and not get near a trailer, I count this a huge victory.

Got to JoAnna's at 9:45 a.m. and it was already 75 degrees. We tacked up quickly and did what I refer to as "The Lake Ride," which takes us past as many ponds as possible so that Leroy, her dog, can jump in and cool down. We were out, walking and trotting and one canter, until shortly before noon.

Asia was a champ. Yes, it was hot and I'm sure that influenced her some, but not all that much. She walked, trotted and cantered whenever I asked without any fuss and I spent a lot of the transitions concentrating on changing speed by changing my breathing and thinking about a change in rhythm. It works, it really does, for she would speed up or slow down with just my thoughts.

There's no voodoo, and I'm sure that years of riding using a lot of rein and leg aren't just tossed aside with thought. If there were instruments that could measure it, I'm sure that I used rein pressure when slowing down, and maybe a small amount of leg to speed up, but I consciously tried not to, just using breathing, thought and weight to communicate what I wanted and I was very pleased with the results.

JoAnna and I had a nice ride. We ran into Rita on a lovely palomino QH and she joined us for part of it. Susan Causey was out walking her dog down Franklin Road. Twenty years ago she, Christi and I used to saddle up on full moon nights and go galloping around the trails. She mentioned it wistfully. I need to get Christi down here and let's do it again. I wonder if Susan still has a horse?