A Brisk Late Afternoon Ride in Maine

Yesterday at the Northeast Horseman’s Conference, I picked myself up a new pair of riding gloves and a custom blend of Grounding Release essential oils, and today Didder and I put them to good use! The late afternoon sun shone brightly on the snow and the air was cold, but I was bundled to the hilt with fleece pajama bottoms, flannel lined LL Bean jeans, two pairs of socks, muck boots, four shirts, a fleece jacket and my RAC hoodie. I even wore a larger sized helmet so I could fit my leopard print fleece hat underneath. I tell ya, I was a fashion plate... but warm as toast! AhD wore his usual curly coat, and he was warm as toast, too. ;) I remembered Betsy's good tip to use a microwaved rice bag to keep the bit from freezing, so we were well prepared for the frigid weather.

I took my time communicating with my handsome Curly boy while I saddled him up and misted myself and AhD with the essential oils. The Grounding oil works to keep me firmly in the saddle and AhD’s feet firmly on the ground, and the Release Oil works to help us release the old bad habits and insecurities that we have been carrying around with us. I took one last deep smell of the bottle before we headed out of the barn, and when AhD saw me do that, he followed suit. Pretty cute. It was a bonding moment for us.

We set off on the trail with two of the Labs with us. It was so incredibly beautiful out there. AhD was very energetic. I was calm, focused and settled. I borrowed Ian’s new muck boots, which have a good size tread on them, so I stopped Didder several times to adjust my stirrups down. We headed onto a wooded trail, and I admired all the tracks in the fresh new snow. The dogs had their sniffers going, and something smelled reeeallyy good.

AhD started to get a little more “look-y” around him at one point near the beginning of our ride, so I dismounted and led him down a steep hill. He did a little dancing at first, but I did not feed into it, and by the bottom of the hill, he had settled enough for me to get back on…and then away we went without any more issues. We found that a snowmobiler had cut a big hunk out of the huge tree that had been blocking one of our trails, so that now we could walk right through, awesome!

The snow was at a good depth to allow for trots and canters, so I took advantage of that. We had so much fun cantering on one stretch of the trail that we backtracked to repeat it three times! Each pass was bolder and faster. Man, did that feel great! We had left the dogs in the dust, so we stopped on the crest of a hill and waited for them, while AhD caught a breather and I took the opportunity to once again tell him what a good boy he was.

The moon had come out as we headed into the barn. I enjoyed this ride immensely, and I’m pretty sure Didder did, too!