Last Saturday Kristy and I took advantage of a break in the wind to ride together. This was to be her first ride on Dacharia since trying her out in the beginning of December. She was nervous (understandably), but Dacharia was fine as was my expectation. The only hiccup was when a jogger came down the road, he was silent and showed up behind her, which immediately triggered the fight or flight instincts. She just skittered a little and was fine. The exception however was that she was immensely offended at Kristy yelling at her. Such a mare attitude! So she then proceeded to trot with her nose in the air to prove a point. Kristy was also having problems due to her saddle, which really doesn't fit her anymore. She's saving up for a new one thankfully.
What about UK? He started by not standing still for me to mount, which is not like him. Uh-oh! I then said a prayer before getting on and commenced to warm him up at the walk with a fleece cooler over my legs and his rear end. I figure taking a cooler on and off while in the saddle will help him with his fear of fluttering cloth *coughtarpscough*. When I finally took the cooler off and hung it on the fence he was fine, no spooking. He did eye it suspiciously when we trotted past, but otherwise behaved himself.
I could just feel he was full of "piss and vinegar" as I told Kristy. There was a definite attitude waiting just under the surface of his calm facade, I just knew it! He worked well at the trot, we worked on more suppling and moving off of my legs. He really did well due to his extra "energy" and was rewarded by getting to walk and stretch for a bit before we moved on to a quick canter.
As we were riding in the snow I wasn't planning on doing a lot of canter, especially as there was an icy spot we needed to be careful around. I asked for the left lead canter and he was good for a few strides.... then the bucking began. They weren't horrendous bucks, but they were still real bucks. I dug in and kept him moving forward while cursing inwardly as I felt my back kink. As soon as he returned to a normal canter we walked and then went back to the canter, being rewarded for cantering without the attitude this time.
Meanwhile as all that was going on, Kristy is laughing heartily! She said that if you hadn't been able to see his back end you'd never know he was bucking as his ears were forward and he never changed pace. I was less amused then her however.
We did our canter to the right, which of course was fine. I really think his earlier issues had a lot to do with him showing off for his new "girlfriend". Silly animal. He let me put our cooler back on from the saddle with no spooks. We walked for a bit while Kristy did some more trot and I tried taking pictures from horseback.
As for today, we got over two feet here at the house and there was about three feet up at the barn. The horses were in the majority of the day as Savannah really can't take the wind anymore. Dacharia and UK were overj0yed when I finally let them outside. UK kept burying his face in the snow like a dog does, it was very cute.
My husband was awesome and had come along to move snow with the tractor so I could actually make it all the way to the manure pile without being buried alive. I cleaned the barn and got things ready for when the critters would come back in. I also shoveled snow, which was up to my mid thigh in most places.
UK seemed quite at home in the snow, and Dacharia tended to follow him around. When the wind wasn't howling it really wasn't bad out. In the end I brought them in early as Savannah looked like she'd had about enough. UK and Dacharia had to be bribed to even get them near the barn. Oh Haystretcher, you are wonderful!
I'm not looking forward to having to go back to work tomorrow, it was really nice to have an extra day off! I hope to be able to ride on Saturday again, weather permitting!
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