Sandra and I thought it might be unfrozen enough in the woods to try riding today. Breeze and I went for a walk in the arena and around the yard as a pre-flight check. Breeze seems very happy to stand on the pedestal with all four feet now lol.
Saddling up was lovely, as was getting on and B was happy to stand for a while as we did some lateral flexion. Interestingly, she was quite tight on the right side so we did a little approach and retreat with that.
We mooched around a bit and B took me into the arena to go and stand at the far corner to look at the horses out in the field. I gave her a treat for this and asked her to leave and follow Sandra and Bert as Sandra went to get on.
We made our way back to the courtyard where B found an empty bag of feed in a bin and got stuck into licking every last speck of it's contents. Eventually I asked her to move away by making a commotion with the reins lol. We met up with Sandra and Bert and headed for the gate. Breeze wanted to go too but stopped once to turn around. I asked for lateral flexion and turned her around. I let her relax and think about it then asked her to move again. Off we went, across the road and into the woods. Woohoo!
It wasn't as defrosted as we thought. Sandra said she didn't feel to happy about it and B decided to spook a few times. That was cool because I got to practice having a deeper seat and getting ready to one rein stop her. It never came to this and we carried on for a while, the horses stopping and eating blackberry leaves, until we got to the 'log trailer'. Breeze walked straight into it while Bert ate some more.
Sandra said she really wasn't happy about the ground and we were worried she might lose confidence so we decided to turn around and go back to see if the mile and 1/4 was any better. Breeze was very keen to be heading homeward and I had to ask her to stop and wait for Sandra and Bert. We stopped at the exit and let them go first and B decided she didn't want to follow so we had a discussion about it. B tried spinning and backing up but I just relaxed and asked for lateral flexion and for her to relax. She relaxed pretty soon and we carried on. We let the horses stop and eat by the pub garden and B was quite crabby with Bert. We tried to carry on but the ground wasn't any better that way either. We stopped a few times, I played friendly game on the fence. It seems to calm B down! We turned for home and B got very emotional and tense. You can see the yard and fields from where we were. I stayed calm and we did a little zig zag and some half halts as we went along but B really couldn't relax, she did her tense choppy walk, wanting to break into trot. I knew if I wasn't careful she might explode so I just asked her to stop and stroked her for a while and played lots of friendly game while Bert and Sandra came past. We made it into the car park relatively calmly though and then B relaxed completely. Nice.
Back at the yard B wanted to have a mooch around. I like the fact that she doesn't expect me to get off as soon as we get back and is happy to go all over the place. We played by a wheelie bin with put your nose on this and stand near enough for me to put treats on top. That was fun. I could ask B to step in any direction and then go nearer the bin. We had some great back up and then a few circuits of the car park before I got off.
The horses got to go out yesterday and again today. I am not sure they want to be out too long so I leave B for a while and bring her in as it gets dark. We will try riding again tomorrow and hope the ground is less slippery.
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