Babe in Woods

Steele and I are continuing to make progress. I've begun lunging ahead of time only every other ride. But I do try to do some in hand work every time. He seems to have settled into our work routine. I realized the other day that he recognizes the leg cue for canter. I still give the voice command but I see that fading out in the near future.

Last weekend was a return of the warm weather. It was actually hot during the day (25 C). On sunday when Cynthia came to ride the horses were pretty quiet. They are starting to get their winter coat and they found the heat a bit much. After working in the ring we headed down to the barn. Ed was doing some painting of our new stall doors. He locked up the dogs for us and then brought us some water (he's such a good man).

We then headed down around the field and into the woods. This was Steele's first time with me riding. He stuck pretty close to Irish. He was so adorable- looking around curiously at everything and then making sure that he was caught up to Irish. I kept the rein loose enough to encourage him to relax but not so much that he could get in trouble. The goal was to make it a low-key experience. To be honest I wasn't remotely worried.
The entrance was pretty close but  didn't mind the tree branches brushing against him. Once you pass the outer part the woods are pretty open down below. I love the feeling of peace that comes walking those quiet paths. My goal is to carve out even more paths and do a lot of hacking.

these are my woods

I haven't been in the woods for a bit and there were a few trees down from the summer storms. Irish stepped over a tree that was about 4 inches around and about 5 inches above the ground. Steele came to a halt and I could see him thinking "there's no way to get over this. My god. I'm trapped." Cynthia and Irish stopped to wait. Rather than pushing him I waited for him to figure it out himself. Which he did. I felt his right foreleg reach up, hit the tree, come back and then again. It was similar to the show when he couldn't figure out how to get into his stall. I gave him a pat "that's it. You can do it".  He then stepped forward again and got his leg over. Then he got his front over and with a hop of his hind legs he was over. I had to giggle. I have ridden him over poles and such but I guess he was thrown by the tree. I'm sensing that eventing might not be in our future but who knows?


We finished up our short trek and headed back to the barn. After that we gave both of the horses a bath. It's probably the last one of the season. After they both were gleaming but we hand grazed them to make sure that they didn't roll while wet. When we let them back to the field Steele was walking in a  very sleepy manner down to the grass.

I think I tuckered out my boy.

those woods were interesting but I didn't see any bears..