Storming

We've had a really weird winter here in California. For most (all?) of February, it was warm and sunny, like spring. Everything bloomed and I had a couple days of allergies, which was SUPER weird for me.

He was pouting the WHOLE time I had him in the
cross ties yesterday

Today though, it's going to rain. And it was absolutely pouring rain yesterday. My horse hates rain. And we have a lesson this afternoon. Sorry, a doctor's appointment. Well, we did. I decided to cancel it for a number of reasons, mostly that I just don't plain feel like riding in a lesson with a new-ish trainer when I know my horse might be a huge dork. I don't need help with how to deal with my horse being a dork I get a lot of practice with that, I need help with the dressage part. She's not a zero toolkit trainer. And I don't know if we'd get to the other toolkits that she's actually adept at teaching. I should be able to ride with her very soon again, so it'd be better if she saw me then. And I'll get a ton out of auditing and talking with her!

Lucky for me, Kate was ready and willing to take my slot from me and I think it's for the best. Kate has been working super hard with Mox and this trainer, so I was really happy to hand her the slot so she can take two lessons instead of one. And the organizer was super happy that we dealt with this on our own rather than emailing her and having to cancel last minute.

But I think my doctor's appointment still stands. Instead of riding in it though, I'll be auditing and watching, so I'm super excited! This trainer is one that I'm sure will be on my list of trainers to ride with in the future. And hopefully she won't hate us when she does see us!

Who wouldn't be excited to see these guys???

Orrrr okay sometimes we're fun to hang out with (honestly I'm
just impressed he can lift his heavy tail like that)

Meanwhile TC and I have been doing some ground work. Yesterday we did some fun stuff in the covered arena, teaching him to follow me when I ran and making him do a lot of reining back with his neck DOWN since his favorite thing undersaddle is to tell me that he can't possibly rein back without stuffing his ears in my nose. It was really fun and totally low stress since I decided to cancel the lesson. I will probably ride today and he'll probably be totally fine and I'll wish I had taken the lesson, but the stress wasn't worth it when I can see her again in just a couple of weeks if I want to.