Okay, the subject line might be going a little too far. I certainly haven't tried to force Mitzi to read Twilight. However, the thing I find most annoying about its heroine, Bella Swan, is the way she whines and mopes about, horrors! having to live in a green and leafy place where it rains!

For the past week or so it's been hot and humid and sporadically sunny here in Halifax, and although Mitzi hasn't thrown an actual tantrum, Lease Girl reported some ear-pinning in the last couple of rides. This is something Mitzi does when she gets hot and cranky: she'll pin her ears but otherwise comply with whatever you ask. Normally she works out of it once she gets going, unless it's really hot and really sticky and frankly, I never ride on days like that anyway because yuck. Anyway, unlike the my-saddle-pad-hurts fit last week, the ear thing is more I-prefer-not-to-but-can-be-convinced.

Yesterday was overcast and humid and Mitzi was a little grumpy to begin with. Then the temperature dropped a bit and the drizzle turned into rain, and she cheered right up. So: one more vote for the Bella-is-a-dimwit camp.

The lesson went pretty well, Coach Girl took the stirrups right off Lease Girl's saddle and didn't give them back until nearly the end of the lesson. There was a repair job going on at the front of the barn, the doors were off and boards were being replaced. I had an unstable week, leg-wise, so I groomed Mitzi a bunch but didn't have the nerve to longe her (I just felt iffy enough to be cautious) and she therefore hadn't been worked nearly enough. But she didn't spook and didn't even look all that much, and Lease Girl was good about getting her attention back when she did gawk.

Right at the end Coach Girl put up a crossrail, which they'd gone over once before a couple of weeks ago. Lease Girl didn't use enough leg the first time and Mitzi stopped, but after that she'd trot up, pop over, and canter away without any fuss. She looked sort of amused. They went over it a total of maybe fives times, both directions, and Mitzi cantered away on the right lead both times but I think that would be easy to fix. And she didn't seem anxious or inclined to rush. The thing about Mitzi is, she's a timid horse but she's neither sharp nor hot so as long as she understands what we're doing she's pretty sensible.

Speaking of pretty sensible, when she was on the crossties after the lesson the gentleman working on the repairs tried to hang the top half of the dutch door. He got it in place but the prop holding it in place slipped and the door fell down with a fairly impressive crash behind us. When I got Mitzi a thing like that would have made her pull loose from the crossties and bolt, minimum. Last year she'd have set back on the crossties at the very least. Yesterday, she went "Yikes!" but probably jumped less than some of the people present, and seemed to forget about it right away. Even the door going back up didn't faze her.

So. Good girl!

Also, Bella is a nitwit.