Walk It Out
The theme of my rides over the past week or so has been hacking, hacking, and more hacking!
Ground conditions have not been suitable for much else, so Dino and I have been taking a lot of long walks, both by ourselves and with friends. It seems to be serving its intended purpose of keeping Dino relatively fit, since his butt still looks like this about a month into our winter let-down:
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| still so round! |
I did, however, get to fit in a short dressage ride the other day. The footing in our little dressage court was ok enough for some walk and trot work, so I took advantage of the fleeting conditions to do something other than walk up and down hills.
Dino was really great! It's so reassuring to hop on and ask for correct flatwork, and have him perform like we never took a break. My position is definitely slipping a bit, but the EuroPony was enthusiastic about his work, light in the bridle, and happy to do what I asked. I let him canter once down each long side, and he was PUMPED about that! I wish I could have let him really rip, but the ground was just too wet to do any more than that without risk of slipping.
On this week's agenda: MORE WALKING.
Oh jealous of the hills! They can be a game changer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first built my farm my arena was on an incline. It made trying to teach a young horse to jump kind of near impossible, but in the winter months, it kept my horses SO FIT since they also turn out in there. I've since had it leveled, so now they're just fat and weak like me. Ugh. I miss summer.
ReplyDeletegotta love a good round pony butt! lol ;)
ReplyDeleteI really wish mine would stay sane enough with just walking when it's too wet for anything else. We had a walk ride on Saturday just to move around and I almost died a few times. Those hills might help if we had any though!
ReplyDeleteJealous of your hills
ReplyDeleteHills are a wonderful thing for pony bums! :)
ReplyDelete