No Lesson

Today I had a lesson scheduled on Luke at Upper Pond Stable. My friend, Barbara, planned to join me for my lesson. Barbara is a teacher and has the week off work. She was to ride my mare, Marie. I told her to just meet me at the stable at 11:00 am. I had to work at the stable this morning. So, after work, I ran home,  grabbed a quick bite to eat, then loaded up Luke and Marie and headed over to the stable. Barbara was there when I arrived. We unloaded Luke and Marie and were grooming them when my instructor called to tell me she was broke down on the side of the road and would not make it for our lesson. It was really cold today. And felt much colder then the temperatures said it was. There was a strong, biting wind. We were glad to get inside the arena. Kyle, Luke's owner, showed up just as we got in the arena. He had come to watch the lesson. So, we didn't provide him much entertainment unfortunately. I ended up doing much more chatting than riding.

Kyle didn't stay all that long and after he left I did work Luke a bit. Nothing fancy, just some walk, trot, canter transitions, a few leg yields and a little work on side passing. I have a hard time keeping at it if I don't have some one telling me what to do. And if I lose focus, you can be my equine does too. But, Luke was being a good boy and it was nice to just be on him hanging out with a friend. After a while, I asked if Barbara wanted to ride Luke and she was happy to try him out. At this point there was a woman lunging a horse in the arena and another rider coming in. Luke spooked at the gate when the rider came in and after that would not go near the gate. Not like him at all and I have to say he didn't look in the least but scared, he was testing Barbara out. Naughty Luke! Barbara didn't ride him long as she didn't want to push things with Luke while other people were in the arena. We had briefly considered riding on the trails behind the stable but it was just SO cold out that we quickly decided against it.

We left the arena, quickly untacked before we froze and made plans to meet tomorrow at the beach. The forecast was for a much nicer day.