I debated which horse to take today... even as I was walking out to catch them. I sort of thought I'd pick whichever mare let me catch her, but... then I decided I wanted to bring Funny. She's been working hard and I was feeling lazy and figured a nice hack in the woods would be perfect. They were dragging the arena's for rain prep so I couldn't even be tempted to do any work. So... that's what I did. Luckily, she didn't run from me. Lyric didn't either to be fair. ;)
So we headed over. As I pulled in to Ashland it drizzled for about five minutes but then it quit, so yay! I brushed her and threw the bareback pad on and we headed out. I didn't want to take the time to switch her bit from her show bridle, so I put on her schooling bridle which still had the rubber d ring attached. And... she was chompy so I'm thinking maybe she doesn't really like it. She eventually quit chomping but... she chomped a fair amount, even on the buckle, so... we'll try the metal bit again next ride. She was a bit quick and animated when we started out and I contemplated whether bareback was a good idea. She's been so spooky that one good squirt sideways might slide me right off. BUT, she was super good and didn't spook but once. (more on that later). We had a nice enjoyable hack... just cruising around. I aimed for hills. We did a tiny bit of trotting but she's so quick and big strided that I didn't want to bounce off! We crossed the baby creek and she had to think about it for a minute but then flat footed it. About that time there was some slight thunder rumbles so I started thinking we might ought to head for home. Unfortunately I was about as far back as I could get, so there wasn't necessarily an easy beeline home. We still had to go parallel before we could go perpendicular back home. But we just marched on. We crossed the dam and it was starting to look darker. I was thinking since we were bareback, she could actually roll in the lake, but... now that it was threatening to rain... I wasn't sure we had time for that. Plus it wasn't that hot anymore. But we did walk down to the water just in case. I had to sort of convince her to put her feet in and then she splashed with her nose for about 2 seconds and was done. Okay... well, I tried.
We turned away and as we were walking in the woods, the thunder really started. There was a good big boom and Funny spooked at it! Luckily she just tucked her tail and bolted forward a few steps. Then realized she was being silly and went back to her steady march. Hee hee... The next few thunders didn't phase her. Smart girl! Then it started raining. It wasn't too bad in the woods but when we got out in the open, it was raining pretty steadily. At least it waited til the end of our ride. We got back and I untacked her and... opted to not bother with a rinse. She had gotten sweaty but not terribly and now she was wet from the rain, so... she got a rain bath. ;)
It was a good ride. I felt like we both needed a break from the training. It was a nice breather. And we still got some fitness in with the hills. And I had some contact for a good chunk of the ride... albeit a very soft contact, but still. I'm glad we went!
No comments:
Post a Comment