I last rode on Halloween, and on my spooker to boot! Scary scary red mare ;)
It definitely felt like a winter ride, despite the fact that the snow is gone except for a few lingering chunks. I worked from home and went out to ride around 3 pm to give myself enough time to get on both horses before sunset, which is at approximately noon, if you ask me.
I got on Bailey first, and forgot my spurs because I almost had an emotional breakdown trying to find riding gloves and things went downhill from there. She was relatively forward and happy to be moving, but still feels quite weak and unable to hold herself together. I foresee a lot of walking lateral work and transitions and long trots for her this winter - and that's kind of what we did. W/T/C in both directions, and some walking lateral work (haunches in is super hard but doesn't = rearing, yay!). She didn't even get warm, but did have plenty of fun jamming around at the canter, which is her favorite. I ended up getting a strap weird on my riding skirt so I spent more time thinking about my skirt than I did thinking about my ride, but she got out and got moving, and that's a step in the right direction. It's such a nice change to be able to swing a leg over her confidently and know that her shit is totally under control. I need to get her more fit before I can start asking her for actual collection, but I feel like I finally have a feel of what I'm lacking in her connection, which hopefully helps her get stronger and will put her in a better place to jump and do dressage come spring.
Arya lunged around like a happy thoroughbred kite on a cold day (though canter and walk are the only gaits she is ok with lately on the lunge), and then came up lame when I got on her and asked her to trot. We did a little work on bending and learning the difference between forward leg cues and bending leg cues at the walk, and she was hesitant to bend when her lame leg was her inside front vs her outside front. I'm thinking it might be a bruise or an abscess, as we've had a lot of freeze-thaw mud that, of course, freezes into pokey ridges of mud from them walking around when it's thawed, so this is helping my theory of it being hoof related. She always seems to come up with something when I find the resolve to really do some riding. MARES.
Luckily this prompt came up, because I want to keep logging my rides without over-posting like crazy due to this month of daily blogging. And maybe I won't keep up with posting every day (hell, I basically already forgot today and it's the second day!) but I am going to try!
It definitely felt like a winter ride, despite the fact that the snow is gone except for a few lingering chunks. I worked from home and went out to ride around 3 pm to give myself enough time to get on both horses before sunset, which is at approximately noon, if you ask me.
I got on Bailey first, and forgot my spurs because I almost had an emotional breakdown trying to find riding gloves and things went downhill from there. She was relatively forward and happy to be moving, but still feels quite weak and unable to hold herself together. I foresee a lot of walking lateral work and transitions and long trots for her this winter - and that's kind of what we did. W/T/C in both directions, and some walking lateral work (haunches in is super hard but doesn't = rearing, yay!). She didn't even get warm, but did have plenty of fun jamming around at the canter, which is her favorite. I ended up getting a strap weird on my riding skirt so I spent more time thinking about my skirt than I did thinking about my ride, but she got out and got moving, and that's a step in the right direction. It's such a nice change to be able to swing a leg over her confidently and know that her shit is totally under control. I need to get her more fit before I can start asking her for actual collection, but I feel like I finally have a feel of what I'm lacking in her connection, which hopefully helps her get stronger and will put her in a better place to jump and do dressage come spring.
Arya lunged around like a happy thoroughbred kite on a cold day (though canter and walk are the only gaits she is ok with lately on the lunge), and then came up lame when I got on her and asked her to trot. We did a little work on bending and learning the difference between forward leg cues and bending leg cues at the walk, and she was hesitant to bend when her lame leg was her inside front vs her outside front. I'm thinking it might be a bruise or an abscess, as we've had a lot of freeze-thaw mud that, of course, freezes into pokey ridges of mud from them walking around when it's thawed, so this is helping my theory of it being hoof related. She always seems to come up with something when I find the resolve to really do some riding. MARES.
Luckily this prompt came up, because I want to keep logging my rides without over-posting like crazy due to this month of daily blogging. And maybe I won't keep up with posting every day (hell, I basically already forgot today and it's the second day!) but I am going to try!
oh winter rides... you've come too soon!
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