My foot is interesting colors. Thanks a lot Andy!

I realized on Sunday that I had brought Andy home exactly a year ago. To celebrate, I brought him a delicious, expensive honeycrisp apple. Apparently, he does not like that particular type of apple, and he spit it out. What a diva. I guess his name is Prince Hellstrom, so he's pretty stuck up. I fed the rest to LB, who was sort of on the fence about it, but she is a food vacuum, so she ended up eating it all.

When I went out I was going to long-line him and work on some softening from the ground, as stirrups + my purple foot = ouch. When I got to the barn one of the little girls, Grace, was riding her pony in the arena, so I decided not to. Sometimes he does buck and screw around on the long line, so I figured I wouldn't. Mel told me how Grace wanted to fall off of her horse so she wouldn't have to canter on her lesson on Friday. Poor girl! I've been there before, when I wanted to fall off and get hurt to get out of playing in a polo match that was totally above my head. I did end up falling off, but not getting hurt enough to get out of playing. But good for Grace, she got the rhythm of cantering during her lesson and I saw her canter when I was riding in there. Hahah, ponies. She rides the cutest little black pony, jazz, and she had to kick it so hard to get it to trot. That makes me appreciate having a really forward, sensitive horse. If I kicked Andy like that he would be in the next county over before I could blink.

So I wound up riding with my newly acquired bareback pad. I love it! It made his narrow back so much more comfortable, and the oh-shit handle made me much less worried about rough stops. I am happy to report that I have now cantered Andy bareback! So exciting. Three years ago I could not canter LB without stirrups. Now I can canter on Andy bareback. We've come a long way baby.