Tuesday, December 15, 2020

One Last Hurrah

I already wrote about how gorgeous last Wednesday was, but Thursday was equally (if not more) gorgeous. I know DH and I had some things to accomplish in the evening, so I ended up taking a half day so I could do my riding and barn things in the afternoon before he got home, and that worked out perfectly!

in DECEMBER. how is this real life?

Cinna was up first. I was wary when I brought her out because I cross tied her and she immediately went into giraffe mode. That does not always bode well for our rides, but I shrugged and saddled up anyway. 


After a few rounds where she dragged me over to stare at herself some more, she settled into some productive work. Towards the end she was getting tired -- neither of us is in great shape, it was 70 degrees, she has started growing a winter coat, I get it. She started looking for things to spook at. She's not dirty about it, she very much telegraphs what's happening, so she didn't unseat me. Nobody tell her she did actually get close when she dropped a shoulder and spun away from a light spot on the sand caused by a reflection off the mirror, but I managed to stay on, lol. Annnnnd then we rode over that sunspot about 15 more times. 


All the teal ombre. 

I was feeling a little bold, so I decided to take her out to the back field. For all that she's *relatively* confident on new trails, she is a quivering mess of jigging and spinning whenever I take her out alone on our trails. I've tried handwalking with her on them, and it does help, but what helps the most is more miles out there with a friend, and the trouble is I don't get to do that often -- even less now that Trigger is out of commission for a while. But, she's never going to get better if I don't DO THE THING, so we walked out in the field for a while. She'd flat walk away from the barn, but the minute I turned her around she wanted to jig and bolt. So we did a loooooot of circling around, some standing and getting treats for relaxing at all, basically praising the bejesus out of any good behavior. There were a few moments I thought maybe I should have warned someone where I was and what I was doing, in case of disaster, ha, but it worked out fine. No photos though, I was mostly trying to live. 

She worked up quite a sweat. 


I washed SO much grime off her. Sigh. Last bath until spring I imagine!

She got tied in her stall because I ended up hosing off her turnout buddy Jack too!

Jack got a good bath too. He was COVERED in mud, and he has a pretty new winter blanket I did not want to put over the mud, nor will brushing adequately remove what he had ground in his coat lol. He seemed a bit bemused (I couldn't tell you the last time he had a bath), but he seemed to enjoy standing in the aisle in a cooler. Especially when I got bored and unclipped the cross ties and let him amuse himself in the bucket of alfalfa scraps. 

Lady napping in a hay bag. 

His tongue. I die. 

Thursday night Cruce claimed the small bed. You know, because the two large Cruce-sized ones weren't adequate... 

Friday morning the sunrise was GORG

We had slept in just a smidge so I was doing chores a little later than usual...

Which gave me the chance to take so many photos!

10 comments:

  1. Springtime in December is my FAVORITE! It wasn't quite as warm here as there this weekend, but we did almost hit 60 on Sunday which was glorious!
    Glad you got some baths and riding in!

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    1. I'm glad you also got to share a bit of the glorious weather! I'm sure you will have lots to tell us in What's Up Wednesday tomorrow :)

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  2. Lovely morning skies!❤️

    Sometimes springtime in December lasts and lasts (yay coastal NC), and then we get to celebrate the arrival of June-uary! So do the flies though lol.

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    1. Ours was merely a brief interlude, both yesterday and today the highs have barely broken freezing, so hopefully our flies stay dead ;) my mom was in NC over Thanksgiving to visit my brother who is stationed out there and she was raving about the weather! :)

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  3. I don't know if you're looking for input so feel free to disregard, but I have found that long lining out on trail rather than hand walking can sometimes bridge the gap for a horse who is nervous. That way the horse has to do the leading but you're not ON them and often have more control. I wonder if that would help Cinna with her nervousness alone on the home trails?

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    1. It's interesting that you mention that, because I used to long line Ruby out on the trails all the time when I was introducing them to her. Cinna's long lining skills are probably... Rusty 😬 maybe I'll reintroduce her in the arena and see how it goes! Certainly can't make things any worse 😆

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  4. Glad you were able to get in another beautiful daytime ride!

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    1. Me too! The weather has been shockingly nice the first half of this week too, but I had other obligations keeping me from taking full advantage of that, sigh.

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