Back in the saddle

Paula rode Bestie last weekend while I was away. Peace of mind for me knowing she was getting a little exercise in my absence. I heard via text that it went well, but haven't had a chance to get the full scoop; will get that tomorrow night when I have my lesson.

I got back into town on Monday. The weekend had been very hot, and Monday was still pretty warm, so I postponed riding until Tuesday.

Once I got Bestie saddled up Tuesday after work, I decided to ride in our regular indoor, the upper one. She was super sluggish, and kept pulling me toward the door. The arena did feel kind of hot, so I dismounted and walked her down to the lower arena. The lower arena is always airy because the plastic walls are lowered in nice weather, which typically results in a nice breeze. She was better down there, but still inattentive. Honestly, it was a drag to keep pushing her along, so after about 20 minutes I dismounted, walked her back up the aisle to the door, got back on, and we headed outside to go down the path to the outdoor ring.

About a third of the way down, we met a few riders and their horses coming from the ring, and Bestie totally lost interest in walking down there, since they were going the opposite way - the magic way ... back to the barn. Whatever. I chalked it up to being one of those out-of-sorts nights, after experiencing a break in our routine over the previous 5 days.

On Wednesday we tried again. The weather had cooled off, and she was great in the upper ring. We did a lot of figure eights over a center pole, and long diagonals. She was much more peppy than the previous night. After about a half hour, we went outside and headed down the path, catching up to a couple people who were riding the same direction with their horses.

The early evening was perfect, much cooler and with no bugs, and walking out to the ring was really pleasant. Once we got there, we turned around and headed back to the barn. Easy peasy. She seemed really happy to be outside. Sometimes I can sense both of us loosening up and relaxing on that path. We spend so much time in the arena during the long Vermont winter, enjoying a mosey down the path feels like heaven.