Stitch's second walk ride of the week was on a rather blustery Friday. I'd much rather ride outside than inside, partly because the outdoor ring is much larger, mostly because we will very quickly be stuck inside for six months. If I head out straight from work for the next couple of weeks I should be able to ride outside before it gets too dark, but not for much longer.
I had to decide if I wanted to take the safe option and ride inside, or put my big girl panties on and ride outside. Someone else was riding outside so I sucked it up and went out.
And again, Stitch was perfect.
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| I've wanted a real sheepskin seat saver for ages. A local place that sells sheepskin of all types had these fancy seat savers on sale so I had to grab one. I love the pattern! angusoliversheepskins.com |
He had done a couple of tiny spooks when I brought him in so I was a little worried that he would find something in either the trees next to the ring or the leaves blowing across the sand to be silly about. But he was solid.
He was so good that we did 25 minutes in the ring and then went for a walk outside it. I wasn't brave enough to head out into the back fields by ourselves, but figured there would be enough to spook at just walking to the front of the barn and down the tree-lined driveway.
He didn't spook at the flapping crazy carpet on the fence used to prevent a mare from nosing all her hay through it, didn't spook at any of the trees, and seemingly would have been happy to continue down the road when we got to the end of the driveway. I didn't want to push my luck.
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| I guess it's time to tackle the mane again. |
This ride was all walk except four long sides at trot, mostly because he was getting a bit stuck in the walk and needed a bit of forward. I did the first two to the right, which is the diagonal that felt wonky last ride, but felt fine on this ride. The two long sides to the left were the posting diagonal that felt nqr on this day. Not sure if that one felt worse because I went the other way first or if it was actually the worse direction.
So, no change from what I was seeing on the lunge.
Sigh.
