My ride today was exciting. Gwyn was feeling amped up and I think it was because a storm was rolling in. The air was humid and in the mid 60s. I was wearing a tank top under a light jacket and I ended up riding without the jacket because I got too warm.
There's now a small obstacle course set up at the barn so we started out by playing with that, since Gwyn was bound and determined to get over by the other horses. I'm going to have to go back and work on the obstacles from the ground because I wanted her to stand on the dirt filled tire and she just kept semi-jumping it instead. We headed out into the north field and had a few arguments about not turning around and instead going forward.
She felt very tense today, so I started asking for her to bend her poll and doing some leg yields back and forth to drop her head. I used the one rein stop frequently. When we got to the western most point of the field I sent her out onto the road (another argument) and her tenseness intensified. It appeared to be trash day and each new pile got a very hard stare by the Goober Mare. Her biggest protest was when we encountered a garbage bag wrapped fire hydrant amongst stalky weeds.
We did not go as fast as previous rides because she was so tense but as I said, we worked on collection and listening to seat aids. I got a most gorgeous collected trot on the way back that I was able to sit to.
I braided her mane today, which meant I had less time to ride.
I'm debating between roaching her for the summer, which will be hotter than Washington that she's used to, or just doing braid upkeep. Braid upkeep will be easier because she'll be in my backyard. Choicessssss
I didn't get photos before we turned back around and saw dark skies. Riding west on Markel Road it didn't seem bad, just overcast. I didn't look behind me until we were back in the field and suddenly, bam, dark skies!
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