Rain Rain Go Away

We've all been concerned about the lack of rain, and thus the absence of spring this year. Usually that means a bad forest fire year is upon us. We have already had two forest fires (man made of course...one slash pile and the other an idiotic arsonist). While threat of fire is always a concern, I was delighting in the dry warm weather and loving the absolute lack of mud this year. Until three days ago. It has not stopped raining since. Spring showed up late, but fast an furious.

Happily we have a nice indoor arena, so I can still ride. And even more happily, as of Saturday morning Rose was back to her mostly happy non-cranky and only somewhat peeing self. I could have actually taken her to the show after all, but I'm glad I played it conservative.

Sunday morning rolled around quickly enough and I had a gal out to try Rose. She seemed like a nice lady, getting back into riding now that she's in retirement. I honestly don't expect a call back though. Regardless of the fact hat Rose was very good and I felt it went well and she liked Rose, after watching her ride Rose I think she is still a bit green for the gal. Basically, Rose can somehow figure out immediately when a rider has little experience and will refuse to do much of anything but walk and halt. This is especially noticeable on days like Sunday when she was more forward than usual (it was definitely a no spur day...I think just from the fact that she was in heat). The gal in my opinion seemed to need a school master, and if I were her trainer that is what I would recommend. She's wanting to take the plunge into dressage, has no dressage experience, and hasn't ridden in a long time. Even a well behaved six year old like Rose would probably be too much horse for her unless she worked with a trainer at least twice a week. She did indicate to me that was her plan, but like I said I'm not going to hold my breath on this one. Which, I suppose is why I'm blogging about it.

Most of the people that have come to look at Rose have been in this category. Basically green riders that want a fancy horse but don't want to pay a fancy price tag. However once they come and meet her they realize that a young fancy horse with a reasonable price tag still needs a lot of training and isn't going to pack them around just yet, so they move on to less fancy options. That's my read on it anyway. So, I've stopped anticipating that she'll sell, and I don't get too excited or nervous about showing her anymore. It's just sort of something I do about twice a month or so.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
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