Ride no. 3 for the summer horsemanship challenge

On Thursday, I got a third ride in for the summer horsemanship challenge, adding another two hours of total horse time.  I am hopelessly behind on the challenge, since I'm so ridiculously busy in the summer -- I just have no extra time to devote to riding.   I'm going to continue participating when I can, though, despite knowing there's no way I'll catch up.  (The goal is 25 rides and 40 hours of horse time.)

I chose to ride with a saddle on Thursday.  The horsemanship challenge requires that four of your 25 rides be bareback, so I've ridden bareback twice already, but I noticed the second time that there were some things going on that I thought I could fix more easily with a saddle.

Thursday was a really hot day, so we didn't do a whole lot.  We rode in the outdoor arena and worked on maintaining a constant pace, always a challenge for Panama in the big arena, especially when he can see his buddies in his corral.  But he did a good job of it Thursday, even at the canter (his more unpredictable gait).  The heat may have helped.

I'm really hoping to have more time to ride soon.  If I can get one ride a week in for the rest of summer, though, I think that's probably the best I can hope for.  Once school goes back in, I should have plenty more time!