Welcome Spring!

Today is the first day of spring and for once it wasn't bitter cold or rainy or snowy or blowing a gale. Instead it was calm and sunny. Guinness and I went for a walk in the morning and the light was so pretty. I could feel the earth beginning to wake up.

Guinness is becoming the perfect walkng companion

Unfortunately, I had to go to the city for the day butI managed to get home close to five and the sun was still shining.  Ed had a meeting that evening but he knew I wanted to ride so we decided to not have supper at the same time (we usually eat together). I wanted him home since Carmen and I were still early in getting back to work.

I brought her in and got her ready. She was a bit bemused as this is normally dinner time but she was happy enough to follow me up to the ring. I started her on the lunge but she was so calm and tuned in that we didn't spend a lot of time on it. I asked her to whoa and she stopped and regarded me with a calm and quiet gaze. I'm ready. Are you? 

I hopped on we started to walk out. She felt a bit tight so we spent a lot of time at the walk just stretching and relaxing.

Actually, the truth is that we were just toodling around - I was unwinding from my day and she was stretching out muscles that were just getting back to work. While I could feel her looking around and I knew that if I 'dropped' her she would likely spook there really was nothing to be stressed about.

no media for this ride, so enjoy this one from Friday. (PC Ashley)

I have been missing having a horse that I could hop on and just relax. So I fully appreciated how nice this was. Carmen would alert to something but I'm getting so much better about not reacting to it defensively that she's starting to trust me (mostly). Irish hung out in his paddock near by, the sun was shining and the birds were singing.  I could feel myself breathe in and relax. 

I asked her to trot and she was quite tight. I didn't get after her or pick a fight (I could feel her getting ready for one). The truth is is that a quick tap with the crop would have settled it but I didn't want to mess with the mood. I trusted that she was feeling tight and just calmly worked on getting her to stretch out and relax into it. This required me to be steady in the tack and to give my rein (but not drop it). Within a few minutes she was beginnign to loosen up and give me her back. 

we didn't do anything other then walk and trot for about 30 minutes. It was enough to wash away the tensions of the day for both us. I hopped off and fed her supper (Carmen: thank heavens, I was starving to death). 

We're scheduled to get some weather Weds/Thurs (some mix of rain/snow/sleet/wind) so I was really happy that I had ridden when I got home. 

One more cute photo from Friday: Julia had hung her vest on the rail and Carmen was reacting to it. I brought her to a walk and she marched right up and put her nose on it. I love that she's trusting me enough to do this sort of thing with minimal fuss.

I shall slobber on this