Walkabout

It's been a tough couple of weeks - the perimenopausal hormones have been hitting hard of late. I've been very tired and full of just don't wanna feelings. Stitch only got ridden once last week, despite me being out almost every other day. I just had zero energy to get tacked up, and my leg was still hurting just enough that I had little incentive.

But so far this week, I've ridden two days - and we're only two days into the week! Much to Stitch's dismay. 

I've discovered that Stitch loves to eat the tops off of the flowering plants.

That'll probably be it until the end of the week though. The main reason I rode back-to-back days is because it's supposed to get rather warm during the middle of the week, and this way I wouldn't have to ride during the heat. 

For these two rides we rode outside. The indoor is under some construction - the kick walls are being replaced along one short end and one long side, so the riding space is smaller than usual due to being blocked off for the construction. We've had a little bit of rain so the footing is just perfect outside.

I hadn't ridden Stitch in the outdoor since the end of April, which veered on being a bit more exciting than desired. He has been in there multiple time since, but is definitely more up out there than when he is inside. 

Dexter seems to spend most of his summer hunting in the tall grass, and scared the crap out of Stitch when we were hand grazing.

I am still wanting to keep my rides very boring for my knee's sake, so I was a little unsure about getting out there again, but decided it was time to bite the bullet and just do it.

And, to no surprise, Stitch was wonderful.

Sunday's ride was pretty boring - lots of walking and about a lap and half of trot each way. He threatened a couple of times to spook at blowing branches but it was mostly just a startle. 

Monday's ride in the outdoor ring was much the same - but then I put my big girl panties on and we left the ring to walk around the property.

All was forgiven though.

Stitch has been led around the property multiple times. He's quite brave when I'm in front of him, but not nearly as brave when I'm on top of him. He's quite observant and sees everything. His go-to when worried is to stop and give it the hairy eyeball, but if it doesn't jump at him he'll probably walk past it. 

The things that he noted on tonight's ride that he had a good look at but walked past while keeping an eye on it were: the round bale with a moisture tester sticking out of the top of it, the open side of the wood mounting block in the grass arena that we'd never been in before, and the large patch of some sort of purple flower left intact for the pollinators in one end of the mown grass arena.

I got really brave and decided to try the wood bridges, which he has been led over many times without a care in the world, but never been ridden over. He stopped for a milli-second at the first bridge, then took a tentative step, and then was confident to the end. The second bridge was even better. (I didn't try the third bridge, which is where he always gets spooked by ducks suddenly taking off.)

This was really good for him. I didn't intend for it to take this long to get him out and about, but with my knee injury this summer hasn't gone to plan at all. Hopefully, he'll start to relax and stop holding his breath out there!