Sweat...what's that?

Spring arrived in Oregon this week and Friday's weather was unusually warm, so I decided to head out to the barn and have me some Rose time. Friday is usually one of our days off. I get to unwind from my work week and she gets to be a carefree baby, but the spring weather had me buzzing and the barn seemed like the best way to unwind. Since she's been doing so well on the longe line, I decided to free longe her with her saddle on for the first time. There was one buck, one fart, one crow hop, and then she got down to business and did great! As usual, she tried to get her way, got denied, and then gave up and did what was asked of her. After we were done and I un-tacked the little lady she was sweaty and even a bit foamy! After a rinse off I developed a grand plan to give her a bath the next day. It was a rewarding end to an otherwise stressful and long work week.

Saturday morning brought more sunny skies and 70 degree weather! It immediately became a morning of spring cleaning and wardrobe swapping at the house. Luckily these annual chores went quickly and by mid-day I was off to the barn to work with Rose. We went through our usual routine of tacking up, with the addition of the longeing cavison this time, and headed to the small pasture. Although not a round pen, it is at least a manageable size and I've found that works fairly well for our longeing exercises. I started her off the longe line to allow her to get any bucks out, but to my delight there weren't any. So onto the line she went, walk, trot, canter, and halt in both directions. She was nice and calm and not bothered by the saddle at all.

She worked hard (for a whole 15-20 minutes...I'm trying to keep our longe sessions short to not put too much stress on her young joints too soon) and was ready for a refreshing bath, although she didn't know it yet. I've only bathed her once before, shortly after bringing her home 6-months ago, so I was not too sure how easy this was going to be, especially without help. Fear not though, after a few moments of becoming reacquainted with water on her body she started to enjoy the bath and even played with the water nozzle and kept trying to lap up the water for a drink mid-spray. She was a gem and stood nice and quiet for the sponge and the sweat scraper. Afterward she got a nice big treat of hand-grazing on the lawn. It was such a relaxing and enjoyable day it was hard to go home, but I had friends heading to the house and dinner to prep, plus I had Sunday to look forward to!