In Which We Ride. Kind Of.

Camouflage dog is invisible.

Winter continues to rule the Northeast United States with an iron fist, and I continue to go slowly insane.

I was so optimistic going into this winter working with a trainer who had a barn with an indoor. "I'll be able to keep training all winter!" I thought naively. HAHAHA.

What a funny joke.

But over the weekend, I was able to ride my pony a grand total of TWO times! TWO.

And friends, let me tell you, I am woefully out of shape.

On Friday evening I hopped on for a bareback ride - the footing was squishy enough to warrant speeds faster than a western pleasure walk, halleluia.

Dino was fantastic, and we did some really nice trot work despite his caution about the footing. It was still slushy and icy in spots, and WonderPony was very very careful. He spoils me with his intelligence.

But then I got the idea in my head that I was going to CANTER, GOSHDARNIT. Except that I'm such a psycho about cantering bareback, and so out of shape, that I super-thigh-gripped my way into a bouncy trot after about six strides of canter each way. It was not pleasant, and I'm sure Dino was thinking some not-very-nice things about me in his head. But, hey, I rode! There was cantering! I'd call that success.

On Saturday morning I just did my chores in the snow, which is quite a good workout. I'm still sore. After the millionth trip back and forth to turn horses out, dump wheelbarrows, or haul water buckets, you really start to feel the resistance of 6" of heavy, wet snow - not to mention the added weight of massive winter boots and Carhartt coveralls.

Sunday brought a break in the weather, and the snow cover meant I could ride. I went all-out and even used a saddle. Dino was really, really good and he really wanted to gallop around, but was again expressing caution about the footing, so he was very restrained. I let him go around with his nose on the ground for a while instead of picking up a solid contact right away so he could find his balance on his own in the snow. We also cantered more than half a circle in each direction!

My own performance, however, was lacking. Instead of actually using my seat and core to do things, it was All Hands All The Time. UGH. Poor Dino just sort of hung out behind the bit for a while until I got my act together and started using my body correctly. I need to go to boot camp. STAT.