Back on the trail

With Rain and Tina, first true trail ride in a while. We went about 5 miles and though a few spots were mucky from melting snow, most of the footing was pretty decent. Tina has come a long way as a pony horse and the trail doesn't seem to upset her at all. She's not nervous or worried on the trail - she's got her head low and she just goes along. We can trot and canter and she stays in her spot and maintains the gait we're in. Pretty impressive.

The horses have thick winter coats and the temp was nearly 60, so both horses got pretty sweaty. It was great to be back on the trail, covering some ground. I've missed it. We were out about 2 hours.

When we got back, I did a little ground work with Rio, prepping him for bareback mounting and a little ground work. I was going to ride him bareback, but he seemed not quite relaxed enough for that, so I just stayed on the ground and played. I go to the carribbean with my husband in a couple days and I don't want to take a single chance of getting hurt.

I then grabbed Miss Z and asked her to stand on the smaller tire pedestal. She's getting quite good at the pedestal. I will continue by asking her to stand on smaller and smaller objects. Then, I hopped on bareback and just rode her for 10 minutes around the trees, weaving around obstacles, etc. Just a fun little ride with my levels mare.

Lastly, I grabbed Gem and did about 15 mins of groundwork, asking him for sideways, back and a some stick to me. He was extremely responsive and he made me smile. We've got to get some good dressage practice going so we can show this year!