Enough philosophy and politics. Horse post

I rode Sadie friday with L and Lady, not a great ride but no flame out. She got rattled and wanted to bolt away from a dog that came running up to its fence and acted tough. I made this worse cuz I was thinking yeah I am glad this dog is on the other side of the fence and then Ole came up to 'help' and I'm bellering at Ole to "COME" illogically thinking he might wind the other dog up where it was might tear through the fence.

But just a bit of crow-hopping and bouncy energy the rest of the ride home from Sadie; not an actual blow up so good job for a greenie and I get a pass on not reacting in the best way Still I did not want to end the ride on the note of Sadie rushing home, even if it was prancing and not bolting so we did 15 minutes in the little arena before I untacked and put her away.

 Sunday I rode Sadie by herself. She was pretty good, I didn't feel like I wanted to ask her to canter JIC, but other than one 180 which I turned into a 360 and "oh yes we are going this way and not just short-cutting home" with a strong leg she was pretty good. I usually prefer not to make a fuss with my ayrabs if they spook. Sometimes I will pull their nose around for a short 'time out', especially if it feels like they are looking for a bogey monster. Just seems like with them its too easy to start feeding them negative energy and make them more likely to act silly/spooky the rest of the ride if I don't keep my reactions pretty low key.

 Today L came out and I grabbed Shade so she wouldn't have to babysit me, being ready to pull Lady up if Sadie was getting anxious and couldn't deal with Lady getting too far ahead etc. That was fun. I let Shade outrun Lady up the cantering hill, I've gotten more comfortable that Lady isn't going to get crazy if I actually let Shade go in front. Did slow down at the top and let Lady gait on ahead. Her and Shade seem to have some rivalry going. Shade is often happy to let Lady be in front at the start and past the "ooh scary brush" bits and I used to always hold her back for the fast canter up the hill so the rivalry has been reinforced especially in Lady's mind.