After work we headed out to the barn to check on Steen and get a short ride in. We are keeping him in a side lot up by the barn so that we can closely monitor his leg and sunburn. When we arrived it was clear he was somewhat depressed. And with good reason, he was on drugs, banged up, and away from his herd.
Thankfully he was happy to see us. We spent a lot of time caring for his wounds and just hanging out with him. When we went to put him away, he really didn’t want us to leave. Robin said I should do a short ride and she would hang out with him on the strip so he could graze.
So I grabbed Bear and quickly tacked him up. He was very willing and interested coming in from the pasture, but once we got out on the strip he was distracted. Many big tractors were harvesting the bean field right next to the strip and the wind was blowing about 30 miles an hour. On top of that, he could see Steen was just hanging out and not having to work, and he didn’t seem to understand why.
I was also somewhat distracted, so I know I wasn’t helping things. We did work a lot on trotting various patterns with a lot of focus on my seat and legs. When I used my hands it was to check in with a feel or to correct a missed leg cue. Towards the end of the ride I realized my rein corrections were probably a little too sharp. As a result, Bear was getting more frustrated and then I was getting more frustrated, too. He started losing energy in many of his movements (particularly backing) and was only putting energy in trying to get near Steen.
I was able to get to a nice stopping point, and then we hung out with Steen and Robin for a little while. Hanging out with all of us did make Steen happier, and we are really happy that his new fly-sheet is here and the swelling on his cut leg is really not bad at all.