Fireworks are already starting to go off around here . . . they'll keep it up all night probably. Only thing I have to worry about my dog is her trying to RETRIEVE the darn things . . . if she hears a loud pop, she figures it MUST have something to do with a duck she's supposed to find.
I just got back from a friend's house. She has this cute little Arab pony that I am riding for her, because she broke her leg 12 weeks ago and she's still not back on her feet (it's a long story).
This was our first try with the new bit I bought for this little girl -- she had a Tom Thumb curb in her mouth that was WAY too much for a sensitive little Arab. I got her a nice D-ring French snaffle (the double joint in the mouth with a round copper barrel in the middle). It was cute to watch her - as soon as I put it in her mouth she started rolling the barrel on her tongue. We settled down to work right away. She accepted contact pretty well, she didn't understand what I wanted at first but we did tons of trotting circles and leg yieldings and she almost immediately understood what I wanted. She has a very rapid canter with her head up in the air, there's not much room in her paddock to work her down (I need someplace where I can do 20m circles with her) but she's starting to soften and not take such rapid strides. I started her over trotting poles, and she got the hang of that right away. Pretty good progress for a hot Sunday afternoon!
Got a picture of Gracie and me in the Hunter Pace --
We jumped the wimp panel, but what the heck. We'd been out for almost 2 hours at that point. . .