January 8th Ride

I had another ride today with better success using Endomondo. The gps doesn't work well in the indoor arena and thankfully the weather allowed me to go outside. I had taken my bareback pad home to wash and forgot it (Doh!) but I had standing permission to borrow a saddle, so I decided to do that today.

Gwyn was feeling fresh today, so it's probably good that I used a saddle. It was also pretty cold so I used my quarter sheet while I lunged her.

Lookin' fancy!

It quickly became apparent that she was likely warmed up enough to not need the quarter sheet, so that came off while I finished lunging. Then I hopped on for some quick schooling in the arena. Since I had the saddle I wanted to work on canter departs, which weren't -great- but we haven't worked on them under saddle in months.

Very concerned about something across the street

Then it was off and out the arena! The farrier is scheduled for tomorrow so she was still missing a shoe on her front, which meant that I didn't feel comfortable doing too much outside but Gwyn seemed pretty relaxed and happy to be out of the indoor.  We started with a circuit of the drive around the barn itself.

Best view.

Very foggy.

Then I moved onto the grassy area. I wasn't sure how muddy it was going to be. All we did out here was walk, to be safe.

Down the corridor of resting paddocks. They're used in the summer. Reason Gajillion I love my barn, they rotate pasture!

She was feeling pretty calm and relaxed, and the mud wasn't terrible, so I decided to do the outer circuit path, which is 2/3 of a mile. That would give us some good distance compared to tuesday without being too hard on her shoeless foot.

The path runs along the road, with a fence in between, then turns in and toward the back of the property. Lots of blackberries in the summer and a great place to hand gallop.

We encountered some spooky trail obstacles including the "yard of random doom debris", a tipped over shelter (thank you, wind storm damage) and a lake crossing.  The back three pastures each have a run in shelter. One of them was lifted clear out of the ground and tipped onto its back. I should get pictures, it's crazy. You can see the concrete on the ends of the posts. It blocks a majority of the path and the approach we took puts a bush in the way so it looks like you can't get by. Plus, sheet metal in a new position can be scary. Gwyn was a big, brave Goober and slowly approached it, getting lots of praise and scritches for each forward step. She was snorty and nervous, but trusted me. I was SO PROUD.

Then we immediately encountered flooding across the path which required her to walk through water. If given the option of a puddle, Gwyn steps around it. This, there was no going around. She nosed the water, made a face, then walked through. Good girl! Great practice for cross country! We ended with a walk past the winter paddocks and around the barn once more before calling it a day since I had to get off to go pick up my kid from preschool. Plus I was getting cold.

Thirsty mare. She always gets a drink.

And for fun. Gwyn being ridiculous. She did settle down and focus and it wasn't the quarter sheet that caused the snorts and tail flagging.