We Loped!

Saturday we went to MIL’s to help her get ready for Sunday. Cat is shedding and I had white hairs all over my jacket just from touching her. She’s kind of an orange/cream color at the moment. She is still very short but she is wide. She’s going to be built when she’s done growing.

Sunday we had drill practice. Two members were gone so I had to fill in. I was told we were just walking & maybe some trotting so I figured Black could keep up no problems. When we got to practice we started off by walking around to warm them up like normal. She proceeded to pin her ears and look nasty but never acted on it. She seemed to come out of it quicker then she did the last time we were there.

We started the pattern and she was doing well. They started picking up speed so I pushed her up into a trot. There were a few spots where they went into a lope and I had her going as fast as I could at the trot but we weren’t keeping up and I wasn’t going to push her anymore.

After the first round I decided she was tired and got on Omar (Terry’s 20 something ½ Arab gelding that I rode last year for the last performance). Matt (our drillmaster) jumped on Black and I jumped on Omar. OMG was his saddle uncomfortable & his stirrups were a foot longer then my legs. He looked like a jockey in my saddle though. LOL

One of the little girls put her hooded sweatshirt over her horses head for grins and giggles. To all of our surprise Black’s head came straight up in the air and her eyes got very wide. She didn’t move but she definitely didn’t care for it. We all got quite the chuckle out of that.

We ended up loping parts of the second run and on this run MIL and Sis were in with us. Sis was full of it. This really was her first time out this year (I had jumped on her bb for 5 minutes the day before but that doesn’t count). Sis was foaming up by the time the run was done. We did another run and this time I used Sis to burn some of her energy off.

We did one final run and MIL needed Sis back so I tried Black again. When we got to the first pinwheel I pushed her a little more then normal and she broke into a lope and stayed in it! I ended up getting her in and getting her to stay in a lope in several places. She feels so weird compared to the other horses when she is loping. When I sounded so surprised that I got her into a lope I had a few members ask me if she was young. I had to chuckle when I told them she was 24.

It is supposed to be lovely tomorrow and Wednesday so I am hoping to get little Ms. Lu Lu out for a road ride sometime this week. I can tell she’s getting bored. She has to mess with everyone that walks by her stall. She has to make sure we realize she is still there.