Mustang Saga

Yesterday was an interesting horse day. Not necessarily the good kind of interesting. I tried riding Tonka in the Orthoflex saddle with my half chaps. They helped a lot. But Tonka was in a weird place. Stumbling, almost unseated me when he tried to fall on his face. Shot up out of a ditch with too much vigor which found me airborne for a minute. Looking for things to spook at. Wouldn't stay in a trot for me. I wondered if it was the saddle and went to change it. Turns out I hadn't paid attention well enough and had left a little end of biothane stirrup "leather" folded under the saddle. Looked uncomfortable. So I'll have to try that saddle again. I rode him for a short amount of time in my saddle, but then a pack string went by on the highway. Weird! Never seen that before. (Turns out John saw them later going through downtown Moscow. Wish one of us had been able to stop them and ask them what their mission was.) Anyway, that just got Tonka all tense and twitchy for some reason. I ended up having to unsaddle and leave him tied for a while, since some people showed up.

Scout also had a rough time. I worked him in the round pen for his 10 minute jog, and at the end left him there for a minute (I was right outside the gate). Suddenly Bella realized he was gone and started running around hollering. So Scout tried to jump out. Twice. Then was so riled he wouldn't stop for me to catch him. Scared me a bit. But I got him.

Today I am madly baking for the crew that's coming to plant trees. They'll be here in 45 minutes... Dang it, I'm a bit behind. So I better go...