Yesterday Riyah and I had another wonderful ride in Dog Valley. I just can't get over the wild flowers this year; the desert is really amazing.

I was in the saddle at six in the evening and rode for an hour and a half. Riyah was great: calm, energetic, and listening. I tried to work on half-halts and transitions. She is so smart and catches on easily. The challenge is keeping her mind thinking when she becomes excited around other horses because when we are alone, she listens well. We walked and trotted as well, and both of us worked up a good sweat. We had one long canter stretch, coming out at the top of the hill to enjoy a fabulous view of the snow-covered mountains in the distance. On the way back to the trailer we took the dirt road and did lots of circles, figure eights, and leg yields.

Today I took Keno around the Ponderosa trail with four friends. (We were celebrating a couple of birthdays.) The trail was pretty slick in places--like trying to climb a hill covered in Crisco! Two steps forward, slide back three! But Keno is valiant and handled himself well, of course. We had to shoo the cows off the trail and watch out for bears, too!