Mallory Madness

Time for a post about Tuesday, which I really should've written yesterday. Oh, well, it's far too late to worry about yesterday. Remember the past, enjoy the present, and look forward to the future, right? Right.

On Tuesday, I went out to the barn ASAP. In fact, Erica met me outside of school and we walked to her car; she drove me to the barn. We got to the barn at around 3:30 pm, and since Annika was supposedly coming out at 4 pm, we just got some Kool-Aid and sat in the shade while we waited.

Annika didn't show up, but Katie's lesson did. Taylor couldn't come out to ride, so... Pete was free! Katie's lesson rode Pete, and guess what? Erica rode Mallory. Groan. Great.

You see, Erica wants to ride Mallory in contesting. At least, she wants Katie to; Erica herself just seems to not want to do it herself. I managed to convince Erica (with the help of Katie) to ride Mallory. Erica's response? To grab a bridle and hop on Mallory bareback while I got on Zan.

We had a lovely ride! Zan even let me get on and off of him twice without a mounting block or someone holding the reigns. Good, good, GOOD boy! ;) That made me very exuberant, and very, very happy! Zan was nice and easy under me, and only sped up when Mallory got right in front of us; things like that can happen, though, seeing that Zan's a guy and Mal's a girl, and Mal's in heat (shhh, don't tell anyone!).

Some strange/funny/dangerous/idiotic/stupid parts of our ride(s):

In the beginning of the ride, apparently Mal had wayyy too much pent-up energy. Erica tried to get her to trot, and she burst into a canter, and then started hopping on her front feet. It wasn't exactly a buck, but close enough. Erica's headband flew off and she had to grab for Mal's mane to hold on. No matter how good a rider you are, it's almost impossible to stay on a bucking horse while you're riding bareback. It's so dangerous to do that, and even more dangerous when - like Erica - you're not wearing a helmet. Honestly, that little incident scared me. But it's Erica; as always, she didn't get hurt. She just was way too lazy to pick up her head band, and we had to avoid the stupid red headband for the rest of the ride.

At another point in the ride, Eric told us to watch this water tank that he was filling up with water. Our job was to not let it overflow. Well,... Yep, you guessed it. We totally forgot about the trough, and were so wrapped up in our ponies. Eventually, though, I was walking Zan and letting my mind wander when I suddenly remembered the trough! I looked over at it, and Rascal, Joe, JW, and Sonny were all standing at the edge of this HUGE puddle surrounding the overflowed water trough.

In the very end of the ride, Erica stood by the barn (we rode outside) on Mal, talking to Katie. I wanted to hear/see what they were doing/talking about, so I rode up towards them. I saw Mal and Erica, I swear. But at the same time, I didn't register that they were there. As I rode Zan up behind Mal, Mal threw her head down and kicked, kicking me in the foot. The same spot where Pete kicked me the other day when Taylor rode Pete up too close to Zan and I. I'm glad I took the blow instead of my pony, but at the same time it hurt bad, so I wished that Zan had gotten hit, and not me. I realize now, though, that I'd rather myself be hurt than Zan. It's just so much less worry that way.

It was a fun ride, and Madison even came out to ride Sonny. At the end of Erica, Madison and I's rides, we sat outside under what I call the "S.C. Tree" (standing for Saddle Club Tree, since it holds memories of us eating lunch under that tree during Saddle Club), sharing red Kool-Aid and 'reading' Erica's textbook.

Just another one of those days that makes you say, "Whew! That was fun!"