Of Lions and Lambs

 It's no secret that I dislike February. To me it's a bleak month- too far from Christmas and Spring. The world seems cold and lifeless. I tend to put my head down and just get through it. I was really looking forward to the end of the month and the beginning of March. 

I miss the green

This has been a relatively mild winter and the end of February began to warm up. We had some rain early last week and it melted the ice in my ring. By thursday it was good enough to ride in. Deep in spots but pretty good. The wind was really brisk but Julia and I decided that we were going to ride anyway. Our thoughts were that we could keep it short. 

In the barn, Irish decided to take advantage of the open door and made a break for the 'grass' outside. He did it as I was leading Carmen past his stall so she freaked out but didn't knock into me. While Julia went to get Irish she clearly wanted to go but stayed on a loose lead while prancing in place. Irish was brought back in (Irish: I regret nothing) but Carmen stayed pretty tight. I looked at her being 8 feet tall and decided that lunging might be the way to start. 

Up in the ring she started off quiet enough and then exploded. It was kind of adorable- she never put pressure on the line but she was pulling all the moves- gallop, sliding stop, rear and then some airs above the ground. She was clearly having fun. I am not a fan of flying horse sized kites, normally it doesn't seem to serve much purpose. But this time I let her have her fun moving forward. After a few rounds she settled down into work. 

Pretty pony but LOOK AT MY RING! 
In February!? What madness is this? 

I took off her halter and we did some liberty games before heading over to the mounting block. I was impressed that she stayed with me instead of following Irish even when he passed close. The wind was so high she was definitely on high alert. She had done a lot of trotting and cantering on the lunge so we stayed at the walk. She was pretty good- a bit tight and wary but trying hard so we called it a day. 

Friday it poured but saturday was sunny and warm. (well okay, I know that 5 degrees is not exactly warm, but it's all relative and the sun felt so nice). Carmen was much more mellow. Our lunging was short and when I got on she was pretty good. The issue was me trying to keep her attention amongst all the distractions. Irish was definitely feeling the spring like weather. Julia let him out to canter and he got excited so down the long side she let him out and he opened up into a hand gallop. I swear I heard him yell 'yahoo'. 

It so good to see this old guy feeling like a 3 year old

Carmen got a little irritated with me insisting on her attention and did do a mini bolt on me. I sat up and then put her andalusian butt to work. We cantered a 15 metre figure 8 with a change of lead through trot in the middle. After a few minutes of that she was feeling much better about listening. It felt like a good ride. It was nice to actually school. Usually in winter I am just riding for the sake of riding and not so much working on anything new. 

Sunday dawned gloriously sunny but the wind was fierce. That morning I spent in the barn cleaning up the old hay and putting away the boards I use under the hay to allow circulation. The chickens were fascinated by all this. They were very excited by the underside of the boards. 

 However, by lunch time it had died down quite a bit. Julia came out again and we were very excited to ride. Irish was also super excited and ran away from Julia three times out in the field. He would let her get him almost into the stall and then take off (we lead him with the lead over his neck). After the third time I went out and put a halter on him and we had a discussion about manners. Honestly, every spring he gets a bug up his butt and he acts like a toddler. Carmen was much more calm. 

I keep trying to get a photo of the chickens going under Carmen
and her non-reaction but my timing is off. She really doesn't care about them

To keep the same pattern I did some ground work, then some liberty work and then I hopped on. The ride was lovely. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and it was warm (well 10 degrees, remember I said it's all relative?). It just felt glorious to be outside and sitting on my pony. Who was also really enjoying herself. We played with some leg yields and transitions. We finished up working on some turn on the haunches. It was tempting to ride longer but I didn't want to make her sore so we stopped there. 

March 1 came in like a lion with torrential rain and wind (snow is some areas). But that's okay. March is a month of promise and I am looking forward to it. Let mud season begin. 

her mane is definitely lighter this year