Riding tonight. All bareback, all the time.

Did manage to ride tonight (I was at the barn last night and brought Kieran in and groomed him and all but didn't end up riding.). Didn't feel overly enthused about fully tacking up so I rode bareback (as did Hanna on Rocky). Mounting was a teensy bit interesting. Christina had mentioned they'd been having a bit of trouble with him standing at the mounting block recently on Sundays and indeed he did the same thing to me tonight.

Remember, I'm trying to hop onto his back on my stomach from the mounting blck and then swing my leg over and sit up properly. Twice he stepped forward a few steps while I was still laying on my stomach. A couple times he started moving before I even got that far.

I just got down and backed his ass right back to where he started. After a couple repetitions he figured it out and stood quietly and I finally managed to get on and go. Yay. Not sure what they're doing with him/about it on Sundays. May have to sit in and watch.

It wasn't a terribly exciting ride. We did a lot of walking, a couple of pivots on the forehand, and some trotting. Tonight we just tried to keep trotting at a steady pace all the way around the ring. He likes to speed up as he goes (especially if there's another horse in there for him to "catch up" to). Once we got pretty much all the way around the ring, I called it quits for the evening. Probably we rode for about a half hour.

Lessoning should happen tomorrow and, it being a holiday, I'm planning on spending pretty much the whole day in the barn. Assuming it doesn't rain TOO much, maybe I can get some pictures while I'm there.