Battling the Barking

I think today will be the last day that I'll be riding over at the Martin's arena. I've been having a lot of trouble over there lately, especially since the weather has gotten warmer. Their neighbor has two large black labs that they keep outside on nice days and they bark non-stop. It's really irritating to both Ben and I. Ben has such a hard time focusing on me and what I'm asking him to do that it's proving to not even be worth it to ride him there since I'm really not getting any training done. He's so distracted and nervous that the whole time we are just working on him calming down and focusing on me, that we have little time for anything else.

Plus with all of the riding I've been doing there, the arena is getting worn in and the footing is becoming too loose and soft in areas. Ideally you would drag your arena at least once a week if you were riding in it everyday and there's has never been dragged. I don't want Ben to get hurt from contrast between the deep sand on one side and the harder grass on the other.

So unless I'm really short on time or just need a place to quick lounge Ben, I think I'll be taking the walk to Barnabee more often now, either that or it's back to schooling the trails again. Maybe I'll be able to talk to their neighbor about the dogs or maybe my dad can bring his tractor over sometime and drag their arena??? Hmmm, we shall see...