good mare, bad owner

Good mare:

Promise got last weekend off due to bad weather, and yesterday off while I recovered from lack of sleep after a Toby Keith concert Friday night. I played lazy most of the day. I went up this afternoon hoping to be able to ride...and found this:

Not too shabby. So, after she very politely told me she didn't need to show off anymore (in the last video, lol)...we went back to the barn and tacked up. Had a nice ride, mostly walk, but we did trot a few times around and cantered about half a circle in each direction. The right hind felt sticky when it was on the outside, but she worked out of it reasonably well. And then to cool down we did some serpentines, working off my legs and trying to gently remind her to loosen her mouth. 

Oh yea, check out the leg below. I am very happy to report that what is left feels VERY much like the scars on her left hind that I assume are the result of barbed wire as a baby. It is grey, hard to the touch, smooth and not the least bit tender. We just may have finally beat this thing!

All in all, she was good. Moving well, happy and quite full of herself. 

Bad owner:

We finish our ride and I bring her back to her stall to untack her - she's STILL in heat, so I figure she probably needs to pee. I undo the girth, toss it over the saddle, pick the saddle up off her back and turn to take 2 steps to the wall and place it there. In the time it took me to do that (*maybe* 5 seconds), she reached down to scratch her face on her leg, the reins dropped down to her ears and she promptly stepped in them. When she brought her head back up, they broke. Sigh. 

Yup. Not my brightest moment today...I definitely know better.

Years ago I learned the hard way that after every ride, she scratches her face on her leg and I have to make sure to grab the reins so she doesn't step through them...because it's ugly when she tries to bring her head up and finds she can't. Normally, when the reins don't break, it results in a rather understandable, albeit dramatic, bronc session. 

This time, luckily, they broke...but unluckily, now I have to find a pair of reins that won't break the bank so I can continue riding. Ah well. Better than breaking while I was riding, right?