Riding April.

Friday was a day to go to Victory. I was so, so happy that I actually got to see Erica. I've missed her so much; I haven't seen her in almost three weeks. I honestly thought I was going to die; from both horse- and Erica-deprivation. So Mom drove me out there at 4:30 pm.

I arrived, and stood on the apartment talking to Brandon while Erica talked to Mom about Erica and Brandon's engagement pictures. Then, Erica came into the apartment and we talked about what was going to go on. Ann the lesson student was coming to have a lesson and she was bringing her foreign exchange student Ying with her. They were riding Sonny and Pete; so I could either ride Mallory and April. Originally I said Mallory, but then when I spent 30 minutes trying to catch her to no avail (usually it isn't that bad catching her; but she's in heat, so.. yeah), I decided to just get April.

I brought April in and brushed her; she is so adorable I wanted to take hundreds and hundreds of pictures of her, but my phone has been stupid lately so I couldn't use that, plus I hadn't brought my camera. But she kept pushing her head up against my chest, she rested her chin on my back when I was picking her front hooves, and she kept nickering quietly. It was so adorable I thought I was going to die from over-cuteness.

I saddle up using Katie's saddle, the blue saddle pad, and April's normal bridle. The saddle was a little stiff and definitely starting to gain some mold; it needed cleaning which Erica pointed out later. I promised I would run over it with some saddle soap and water.

Leading April into the arena, I checked my girth for the third time and then got on. She was so calm, so ready to listen, so attentive. I love her so much.

Our ride was amazing. Except, she was a little stiff in the back. We worked on stretching out at the canter and that helped her strides match up a bit and she was a little looser after that. We did lots of long, easy trotting that she really seemed to enjoy. The lesson students did well; Sonny really looked good once she got him to behave. I am so, so proud of Pete it's kinda crazy. He was attentive, kinda tucked his head a bit, was nice and slow, and he looked so so good. He's shedding out really well and really fast, and so is April, and I'm glad about that. I seriously thought April would be a slow shedder since Emmy was, but maybe not!

I got off, untacked, put April up, and then sat Katie's saddle on the arena wall. I hate doing thing for other people when really they should just do it themselves, but I'm a nice person (usually) so I cleaned Katie's saddle for her. It looked and smelled nice afterwards, and I was proud of my hard work in such a short amount of time, with such nice results. I ran out of time to clean April's bridle, but that's on the to-do list for next time.

What was sort of bugging me is that, now that Lynx is gone, Rascal and Kota aren't a 'group' any more. When Lynx was at the barn, him, Rascal, and Kota were kinda a posse. But now, it's just the horses at the top and then the horses at the bottom of the totem pole. I feel bad for the horses at the 'bottom' of the group. Sigh.

Farrier's appointment for Missy, Chief, Grinder, and Lucy on Tuesday! Yay so excited! Missy gets shoes & Lucy gets trimmed... joy!:)