I am writing this entry on August 30th, Monday. Yesterday was truly among the most amazing days of my life. It was the 5 year anniversary of when the levees broke, so I was feeling sort of kismet and magical and the strong spiritual energies. I was supposed to meet Coy out at the barn, but he wasn't able to show up because he had to work on his vehicle with a friend. So, I used it as an opportunity to bond with Renny. I got him from his pasture, practiced longing and joining up with me, longlined him beautifully. I mean he has never longlined so beautifully in his life -- with balanced round light circles on the reins and a quick even responsiveness to the asking for change in directions with no change in pace. It was amazing. I wish I had it on film. And then I took him to the outdoor pasture and mounted and rode him. He was such a great little pony. I still can't quite believe that the second time I rode him, I just did it on my own. There were only two teeny tiny glitches. Coy had told me to keep an active leg on him and I didn't because he moved off in a quiet sensible forward-reaching walk. So, then after awhile, I decided to ask for circling and put my leg on him and it surprised my pony big time -- you would have thought he had forgotten I was on him entirely. He scooted forward fast. But luckily I had him turning on a circle, so he was very easy to break into a walk. I was actually glad that happened because it gave me a chance to try out his paces! I felt more confident about asking him for quick turns on his forehand and hind and for full 360s. It was nice. The other glitch is that he can tell that I am nervous about dismounting, so instead of standing perfectly still, like he does for the mount, he takes a two inch sidestep to get away from me -- which I can't blame him for since I take a pretty big jump away from him for the last few inches as I leave the stirrups! Something to work on! I can't wait to ride my pony again.
Anyway, these photos I took of the girls immediately after my happy ride. They were happily quietly grazing in the corner of their front pasture and they were just eating as they were mingling among this flock of birds.