Just a quick follow-up on my last post about riding both Beth and Maddie.
Monday was considerably hotter, and even a bit muggy, so I thought Beth's energy would be a bit more subdued than last Friday when it was so blustery.
HA!
I got on her again and we got some decent trot circles, though Beth really wanted to pull at the bit and kept veering off toward the barn. We worked through it for the most part, then I took her out in the pasture, where we daren't go the other day because of the nasty wind. She did okay going out, especially considering that she was all by herself, with only a little hesitation, that was overcome with some gentle reassurance. As we circled up the hill around the big log and came around facing home, however, I needed to keep her from careening down the hill. She did settle fairly quickly at the walk, until I asked her to swing to the left, around the pond: THAT wasn't the way home! We had a brief discussion, then she decided it wasn't such a big deal after all, and we circled the pond and walked back to the barn. The only spook was at a ittly bitty bird in the bushes at the gate back into the paddock, and even that was just a little startle.
Today, Maddie was pretty mellow, and it only took a few minutes for her to relax from a somewhat headstrong trot into some nice jog work. Then I sucked it up and pushed her into a lope. We got a little fuss face, then some decent 70 foot circles (half my little arena) each way. Let her stand and relax a bit, then headed sown the driveway and into the currently empty cattle pasture. She seemed to be enjoying that, until she unexpectedly found her feet in a slightly muddy spot below the irrigation pipe, and about had a cow! The rest of the way down the hill, she was on her guard for other sneaky wet spots (though she didn't see the one snake that I did) and seemed quite convinced that she would drop out of sight into quicksand at any moment. I didn't have the energy to do a whole session of water crossing, so I didn't even attempt to go across the bottoms where I knew it would be wet. Once we started back up the other side of the draw, Maddie relaxed again. She balked a bit at stepping over two telephone poles across from the house (I'm soooo tired!) but finally managed and we headed home. Just before the road (and the turn into our driveway) I asked her to walk straight past the big mud puddle that she had given a wide side-stepping berth to on the way in, and she did pretty well at that, so once we got onto the home place, I climbed down and loosened her cinch and we did a meander home, stopping to pull weeds and drag down a couple of dead branches on the way.
All in all, two good rides, considering that neither mare has done much all spring.
Monday was considerably hotter, and even a bit muggy, so I thought Beth's energy would be a bit more subdued than last Friday when it was so blustery.
HA!
I got on her again and we got some decent trot circles, though Beth really wanted to pull at the bit and kept veering off toward the barn. We worked through it for the most part, then I took her out in the pasture, where we daren't go the other day because of the nasty wind. She did okay going out, especially considering that she was all by herself, with only a little hesitation, that was overcome with some gentle reassurance. As we circled up the hill around the big log and came around facing home, however, I needed to keep her from careening down the hill. She did settle fairly quickly at the walk, until I asked her to swing to the left, around the pond: THAT wasn't the way home! We had a brief discussion, then she decided it wasn't such a big deal after all, and we circled the pond and walked back to the barn. The only spook was at a ittly bitty bird in the bushes at the gate back into the paddock, and even that was just a little startle.
Today, Maddie was pretty mellow, and it only took a few minutes for her to relax from a somewhat headstrong trot into some nice jog work. Then I sucked it up and pushed her into a lope. We got a little fuss face, then some decent 70 foot circles (half my little arena) each way. Let her stand and relax a bit, then headed sown the driveway and into the currently empty cattle pasture. She seemed to be enjoying that, until she unexpectedly found her feet in a slightly muddy spot below the irrigation pipe, and about had a cow! The rest of the way down the hill, she was on her guard for other sneaky wet spots (though she didn't see the one snake that I did) and seemed quite convinced that she would drop out of sight into quicksand at any moment. I didn't have the energy to do a whole session of water crossing, so I didn't even attempt to go across the bottoms where I knew it would be wet. Once we started back up the other side of the draw, Maddie relaxed again. She balked a bit at stepping over two telephone poles across from the house (I'm soooo tired!) but finally managed and we headed home. Just before the road (and the turn into our driveway) I asked her to walk straight past the big mud puddle that she had given a wide side-stepping berth to on the way in, and she did pretty well at that, so once we got onto the home place, I climbed down and loosened her cinch and we did a meander home, stopping to pull weeds and drag down a couple of dead branches on the way.
All in all, two good rides, considering that neither mare has done much all spring.
Sorry you were busy last weekend...but I'll bet you're happy to get some hay!
ReplyDeleteWe've got "haying weather" forecast for the next few days, cross fingers for us because the neighbors just cut theirs today and it if gets rained on 't'will all be green mush.
They sound like two pretty decent rides! They both sound like nice ponies as well.
ReplyDeleteGood rides!!!Yea...my rides are few and far between lately too!
ReplyDeleteOur hay JUST got cut...wonder if the content is worthy for my mare at all...the easy keepers will do fine. I am getting it tested this year...it is sooo late...it just stopped raining!
KK