All of the labs/classes at the farm were canceled today because of the bitter cold; it was 16F in the arena, which is perfectly OK to ride in so long as you monitor your horse and do a proper warm-up and cool down, but none of the instructors want to stand in that and not be moving, and the lesson horses probably wouldn't appreciate it, either. So the arena was almost completely empty the entire day.
I took royal advantage of this and decided to let Stella loose in there for a nice run. She never plays out in her paddock when it's cold because the footing isn't all that great and she can't get any decent speed. It's funny, a lot of horse owners don't WANT to let their horses run at pasture because they run the risk of getting hurt. I WANT my horses to goof off and play and run when they're outside. It tells me they're feeling good, they've got some energy, they're happy and sound enjoying themselves.
I always give Stella the opportunity to run and get her bucks and squeals out before I work her. It ensures me two things: I've got her brain when I do ask her to go to work, and she's far more likely to respond with softness instead of tension. Today was no different, except she didn't have to work after. She would have been fine, but I was in no hurry to stand there and long-line for 40 minutes. As it is, it took me twice as long to do chores because my gloves weren't doing jack squat and my fingers felt as though they were going to fall off.
So into the (empty) arena Stella and I go. She did a little trot/jigg all the way up the driveway to the barn, so I knew she was more than ready to go. At first, when I took her leadrope off, she didn't seem to realize she was free, so she stood there for a moment until I shooed her away, at which point she promptly spun and took off like a rocket down the long side, squealing and bucking all the way. I let her run mad figure-8's at breakneck speeds for about 10 minutes (I love watching her do natural flying lead changes...SO cool!) before a professor called me over to the human door. She continued to fly around the ring as I talked to my teacher before finally coming to a nice trot down the long side, stopping in front of me with her ears perked and nose out as if to say, "what, you aren't watching me anymore?"
I shooed her away and she continued her nice little trot before circling back towards me, breaking down to the walk and shuffling over with her nose to the ground, chewing all the way to let me know she was done.
Can I just say I love this mare? She is the easiest horse I've ever worked with, and she latches onto you the moment you give her a chance.
Ernie was in a better mood today. He was a little pissy all weekend, probably because of the cold and the fact that I had to add another blanket (he has on 3 now, and he doesn't care for his blankets...) but was slightly more chipper and actually somewhat happy to see me.
More to come this week when I can get LBM back into work.
No comments:
Post a Comment