In Which Ed and I Go For a Walk in the Woods and d'Arcy finds a Treasure

The day I had the saddle fitter in was the last warm day- the ground is frozen and my ring is not useable. It's snowing out my window right now but I hope that we might get enough so I can ride. Fortunately I dragged the ring on Wednesday so there wouldn't be any ruts.

However I digress.

It is a good time to think about my goals for 2017 (I swear that there's a post coming). One of my main goals is to do more hacking with Carmen and make more use of my property. Today Ed and I headed into the woods to mark out trails to cut.

part of my woods, not all is this 'open'

I have about 10 acres of woodland and I want to cut out numerous paths that loop back on themselves so that I can use them as part of my regular training. Today seemed like a good day- the ground was hard and the leaves were off so it was easier to see paths.

d'Arcy, of course accompanied us. As we were in part of the trees I spied something that shouldn't be part of the woodland landscape. It turned out to be a jolly ball. When Steele was young I bought this in a desperate attempt to keep him from getting into trouble and eating all my fence posts. At some point it disappeared. What I think happened was that Belle stole it (she was notorious for taking and hiding toys) and hid it in the woods. There likely is whole cache of balls in these woods too. d'Arcy was thrilled.

this dog is so easy to make happy

Ed and I managed to get some trails mapped out so that he can start to cut them down. We might rent a woodchopper and use it to make some footing. I'm kind of excited about the whole idea. 

On the way back to barn the  horses were outside eating hay and I decided to see what Carmen thought of the ball. I know that I have been doing lots of work to get her to be more relaxed about new things. When Rachael was here Carmen wanted to play with her paper and stuff so I know she's getting less worried about stuff. I stood outside the fence and slowly lobbed the ball into the paddock but not at the horses. 

Carmen looked at it and took a step towards it and then stopped. Irish gave a sigh and went over to check it out while she watched. 

He gave it a good sniff and then went back to his hay. He does take his job seriously. 

Carmen came up and gave it her inspection. 

This seems so mundane but in the past her response to anything new was always 'no'. I like to see her gain in confidence.