summer officially arrives

Last week was hot, and this week is supposed to be even hotter. Living in California, I knew it was coming, but 103 degrees still sneaks up on you. I'll be needing to get out and ride early or late...that'll be new for Major.

On Friday I took Major out with a friend. It was actually cloudy and we got a couple drops of rain. Didn't do a long ride, but he is improving with another horse. At one point however, he lost his brain a bit. The other horse had an obstacle that was causing some issues. Since Major was brave about it, we went first. But it was best for the other horse to do the horse-eating-rock-and-ditch obstacle a couple times. As the other horse turned away and went up the hill, Major thought he was being left! He pitched quite a little fit, which just made him do more work. He calmed right down, but here is a horse who is great alone, but 20 minutes with another horse on the trail and they're best friends. And at an endurance ride this would be multiplied, I know I have a lot of training to do!

This weekend a friend competed in her first endurance ride, and I met another woman who is retraining her trail horse after she took a bad fall. I love that there are so many people with so much passion, and while the end result may be different (endurance, trail, dressage, jumpers) in the end it is all the love of a horse.