Nice Day for a Ride

 The weather was warm today, with very few clouds in the sky. It was excellent riding weather. I wore my new smoke-blue TuffRider breeches today, which I had gotten for my birthday earlier, and rode Reno because Ginger had just had lesson with a girl named Olivia. Reno was having his turnout time in a pasture behind the barn. When I went to get him, I couldn't find his halter, so Meghan told me to use one of the other horse's halter. I led him around the barn and inside, tying him in the cross-ties before getting him ready. While I was picking his hooves, Meghan painted them with black hoof dressing. I then put his boots on, saddled him, put his bridle on, and led him to the arena. Before mounting, I tightened his girth a bit more.

 I warmed Reno up by doing walk-halt transitions and riding around the arena twice. When I was toward the end of the second lap, Meghan told me to ride toward the corner across from the gate, where a set of jump standards with a couple of trot poles between then stood. I circled it at a walking tracking right first. Then I began trotting around it. Reno wanted to go fast today and began trotting too fast, sometimes even breaking into the canter. Because of this I rode him a small circles and gradually made them wider. After doing this for a bit, I slowed to the walk and changed directions. I once more began trotting.

 After that, I once more changed directions and started a new exercise. I began trotting a figure eight, doing the first part around the standards I was already riding around, and riding the second around another set of standards, which were by the gate. I did this so I could get better at changing my posting diagonal. After a while, I started a new figure eight, riding to the right around the original set of standards before going around two adjacent sets that were near the middle of the arena.

 Finally, I began that last exercise. I started by turning left and circling the original set of standards. Then, I rode around to ones near the gate, and finally heading back to the starting point. Next, I began trotting around the set of standards I had started at. I did several steps of canter in each direction then cooled Reno down.

 I rode him out of the arena to the end of the barn closest to the trail(right side if you look at it from the parking lot), then dismounted. He was very sweaty at the end of the ride, and hot, so Meghan told me to hose him down after grooming him if I had time. After leading him into the barn and tying him in the cross-ties, I untacked him, groomed him, and picked him hooves. Then I led him onto the concrete wash area and tied him to the bar. I turned on the hose and let it run for a bit until it was cool. Then I began spraying his legs, slowly working my way up his body as he got used to the water. Once he was cool and I had sprayed his entire body, I untied and returned him to the pasture. As soon as I left the pasture, he began to roll and got himself very dusty. He looked liked he had fun rolling! At least I had bathed him to cool him down, not clean him.

 It was a fun ride. My leg was better than last time, which is good.