Four days of fun!

Besides a long trail ride with the neighborhood M38 horse crew at the end of January (the pictures below are from that ride) I had not been riding much partly because of the weather which has been snow, -30 degrees and blowing snow and more snow and partly because of my new furry charge an English Shepherd puppy.  However, starting this past Thursday I got back on track.  Originally to start, my goal was to ride three times a week but I got in four days.  Four wonderful days! 

 

The weather in the UP lately has been a balmy 30 degrees.  The first day I just worked with my curly girl, Ani, in the indoor arena to get her out of vacation mode.  I came back from the barn refreshed.  It was so nice to spend time with my horse I can't fully express it!  The next day was breaking trail on a short loop behind our house.  It was hard work for the horses.  My curly got temporarily stuck in a drift!  The look on her face when I slid off was "now what?".  We decided to walk the road back to the barn. 



 

Saturday I rode in the outdoor arena.  After being stuck in a drift the day before I had to nearly push Ani into the deep snow of the arena.  After many failed attempts to jump onto her back from the ground of which my curly was very tolerant:) I used a makeshift "mounting block" to get on.  Once a path was made Ani stuck to it so I grabbed her mane and off we trotted.  Sunday was back to the short loop behind our house.  All the horses resisted going down the trail at first but soon seemed to realize it wasn't so bad, the going was much easier the second time around.  I ended the ride in the outdoor arena.  I was able to jump onto her back this time.  Ani was very willing to trot around and while I normally don't do this, I gave her freedom to go where she wanted while I hung onto her mane.  Lots of laughs as I held on.  Ani seemed to be having as much fun as I was.