I guess I spoke too soon. On Wednesday it was nice despite the fact that it rained on us the last 5 minutes of our ride. Thursday was not only stellar weather but a stellar ride because Reily was sound! We went on a nice, long trail ride climbing over the top of the mountain (see post Horses vs. Mountain Goats) then taking a slow winding ride on the switchbacks down the other side all the way back home. Needless to say it was a great hour ride, but it was also almost pitch dark by the time we got home. No matter, Reily not only handled doing the whole thing alone like it was old news, he handled the dark without being the slightest bit fazed. We heard some deer off in the woods, he looked that way with ears pricked but just kept on walking with those big, rhythmic, swinging steps. Some neighbors' dog threw a fit about us going past their house, again he looked but totally kept his cool. I truly cannot praise this horse's brain enough!
Well the nice weather abruptly ended on Friday morning. I heard that further south it was like a monsoon, but I'm not sure which is worse, because up here it was mid 50's in the morning and clear skies. Then throughout the day it flip-flopped at least 3-4 times between all out downpours and then clear skies. In fact, at one point it was perfectly sunny and dropping bucketfuls of rain simultaneously. Very aggravating and once again the ground was SOAKED through. Then the wind picked up making it almost impossible to even get their blankets on for an extra layer to ward off the chill before they tried to blow away while attempting to get everyone buckled in!
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| Reily getting his feet picked while Boo plays the role of the "run away" |
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| Warming up Boo in the ring |
I may not have gone to church to do it, but I was thanking the lord for Sunday by going out and enjoying it! The wind finally let off and the sun came out and other than the occasional, short but brisk wind gust it was a gorgeous late February day so we took the fellas over to the horse park to play a bit. I groomed and tacked up the boys and warmed up Boo in the ring (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4jehqyieNQ&context=C385cbe1ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO) before helping my boyfriend climb up on Reily and heading up to the XC course to jump a few elements. Boo was very good, only a couple stops that came from me not sitting up and waiting. He was tired out when we finished and Reily was a little hot and "just wanted to run" according to my boyfriend so we played musical ponies on top of the XC course and switched saddles so he could cool Boo out and have the slower ride.
Well he really wasn't joking, Reily was feeling great and having a blast being out in the big open field so I trotted him to the far end of the course then turned him around and let him start off trotting and then let him go into a canter and eventually a gallop and we went across the entire top of the hill (a good 1/2 to 3/4 mile) and he was just LOVING IT! Happy little ears, and when he really opened up his stride and got rolling it was the best feeling ever, he wasn't running away just floating across the turf, eating up the distance. I foresee us doing a lot of trotting on course at the lower levels or else we'll end up getting penalized for coming home too quick! I can't wait to get the daylight back and start riding him 5-6 days a week, he's going to be a XC machine! Since we were up there and plenty warmed up we popped over a few tiny logs on the ground also. I so wish we'd gotten video of it because it had to be hysterical to watch. These were so small he could have easily stepped over them but the first two times we trotted up and he deer hopped over the log with such a big thrust he totally jumped me out of the tack. When we landed he happily cantered away with this adorable little, "Neat mom, I like doing this new stuff!" look on his face and my boyfriend and I were both laughing like crazy. After that we moved on to a different log on the ground and he was already starting to get better and began jumping across rather then just up, picking up his knees and hind end well. We even went over to a bank and did a tinsey-tiny step up (which was nothing to him, with those long legs it hardly seemed like he was even changing terrain) and then walked over to the down side and after only a mild hesitation ("Mom, why do you want me to walk off this if we just walked on?") he did the tiniest drop down like it was nothing. We did that a couple more times until he was happily popping up and straight back down in the happiest little expression ever. Reily and I both had such a blast out on the XC course!
We took the boys back down and took care of Boo then let him out in the round pen so he could graze for a few while Reily did a few minutes of ring work. The hardest part about not having a proper ring at home is trying to make progress on his contact. When we adopted him they warned me he might be a bit hard mouthed at first because his exercise rider at the track used to sort of bully him around a bit and hang on his mouth when he took him out to work him. So I want to be able to ride him on a looser rein and allow him to reach for the contact himself to learn that I'm never going to yank on his mouth, but without a ring it's very hard to give him this loose of a rein at home without running the risk of him bulging through my leg aids and heading back home whenever he feels like it. I was very happy to work with him in the ring for a few minutes and see some improvement despite the fact that we can only work on it but so much at home. I was giving him a very loose rein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXpAJAsWGQ&context=C385cbe1ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAoMTYfk-zU&feature=related) but he reached down towards the bit several times on his own! Small victories, yes!!
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| Happy pony after a fun day! |
Daylight savings time ends on March 11, only 13 more days! I mean... not that I'm counting or anything ;)
