A late report again. I better make sure this doesn’t become a habit. Though I had a passable excuse this time, since we didn’t really do much yesterday. Our regular instructor was sick, and the replacement had decided we were going to trek out. Never mind that we had already done that once this semester and we really aren’t supposed to have to do it more than once since it isn’t exactly great value for our money. So, some of us were less than happy.
And I got even unhappier when she told me I could pick between Nelson and Sammy. Now, I ride both, and I really like them, but outdoors? Sammy .... no way, as much as I love him. He gets very frisky, and he’s much too big for me outdoors. Nelson is small enough, but I had a feeling he’d be very lively and without our regular instructor around I wasn’t going to take the chance. So, I said I couldn’t come along unless I could get Murphy. She said she couldn’t change the horse lists, but fortunately one of the regular instructors was there and she said it was okay to switch out Sammy for Murphy. Whew.
Murphy was pretty sweaty already from being in the previous class (not that they worked hard, but the weather here is currently too darn hot), but he had nothing against another lesson once he realized we were riding out. He just loves that. And on the whole, it was a pretty nice ride. For once, we actually got to canter some (and Nelson got to buck a lot, proving my point about him being a little frisky), and Murphy really liked that. I would just love to do some eventing-style jumping on him. Irish horses have it in their blood. When we got back in, I made sure to sponge him off thoroughly, and he just loved it. It was nice and quiet in the stables, and it was good to spend some extra time with him. So, I felt pretty good about the whole evening, all things considered.