I've had a lot going on and, unfortunately, haven't been keeping up with my riding journal here the way I'd like to be. I'll do a bit of a recap of my rides over the last two weeks, in the next few entries, as there's stuff in there that I don't want to miss.
Not quite two weeks ago, I went out for just-a-ride on my usual lesson horse. I almost turned the car around part-way there, as there was definitely a storm brewing, and I even hit some patches of rain on my way out there. However, it was still okay when I got to the barn, so I tacked up anyhow and went to the ring to ride.
The sky was grey and the air was thick. There was definitely a system coming in. Just as I was about to get on some wind started up in the trees. Not a crazy amount, but it was more gusty than steady and I was having minor flashbacks to the day in November when similar weather turned this horse into a big spooky butt. However, I got on anyhow.
On our first lap of walk she spooked at absolutely nothing and did a little scoot forward, with the windy woods behind her, so I walked her about 50 feet further and, instead of trying to just ride it out like last time, I did what I SHOULD have done before, and hopped off and lunged her. Fortunately the equipment was all right there so I didn't have to trudge us both back to the barn.
I lunged her up at the "spooky" end of the ring, by the trees, and other than some very mild scooting forward in her first canters, and her wanting to come in on the circle and crowd me, sigh, she was fine. So, I got back on.
I stayed at the "safe" end of the ring and immediately went into some remarkably relaxed sitting trot -- remarkable that I was relaxed in the situation, mainly, haha. The footing was wet and a bit slippy, but conveniently the less spooky end of the ring was also the driest part.
I don't know if she was tired from lunging, or if she was taking the suggestion from me, but the gaits were all very slow, collected and SMALL. Which was fine by me, given the earlier spooky tendency! I rode a ton of transitions. She was super responsive. She slipped a bit once in canter and after that I just avoided canter in that part, and kept the canter we did very collected.
I was really pleased with how well she was carrying out all the transitions. And she was really sitting back and carrying herself in them. It was a powerful feeling. I'm not really one to power-trip, haha, but it did feel POWERFUL all the same to have such control. I tried something I haven't done, which was to try to count out exactly how many strides of canter I wanted before coming back down to trot. I got it some times. I missed it mostly, going a stride or two or even three over. But it was a cool exercise that I should do more of.
It started to drizzle. I kept riding. It felt kind of nice.
My favourite moment in the ride came when we had just been doing OODLES of transitions and I went to shift my seat at the walk... and she started doing this incredibly collected walking-speed canter, very up-and-down, carousel horse feeling. I actually laughed and said "What are you DOING?" I brought her into a walk again and gave her a pat. It was so funny and cute.
The ride wasn't long but it was productive and fun. I'm pleased with how I handled a less than ideal situation. What could have been a total bust, or a spooky anxious experience, turned into one of my favourite rides in the last little while.
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