From the Sandbox to the Trails!

I've been a really boring horse owner these last few months. It's been rainy so I've been having epic battles with my arena to keep it rideable. The winter is all about "when do I drag?" "when do I roll?" "when is it okay to ride?" and "why is there sand in the creek?" "why is there a canyon of base rock in the arena?"

Why is there a pot of gold on my horse's ear?

But on the days that I can ride, Rico is doing well! I've had to scale back my spring goals because it is unlikely I will be able to keep him in the kind of work that would bring us to Prix St George any time soon. So right now I'm really focusing on little things, such as rideability in the pirouettes, flexion to the left, straightness to the right, aaaaand TRAIL RIDING!!!

Beautiful view on a beautiful animal!

That's right, I took off the bubble wrap, put my gorgeous beast in the trailer and took him out on the trails! He was pretty disappointed, as seen in this picture:

Unhappy horse wishes he was in the arena

There's a beautiful trail facility nearby my house called Harvey Bear. The place was devoid of bears and actually of most other creatures that day since it was misty and cold.

Harvey Bear!

I love this place- you can ride way up into the hills and around a lake, or you can ride on the gravel path. I, of course, chose the flat path around one of the cow fields as my horse's first real trail ride in over three years. Rico came off the trailer bonkers. He settled down a bit, with the help of my wonderful father who is tall enough to man-handle my horse when necessary.

Calm horses are more fun to trail ride

It was slick out there, but my horse was a pro, he marched through puddles, walked quietly across wet asphalt when necessary, didn't spook at anything, and overall had a very good time.

And I got some nice pictures from the back of the good horse!

I had a really wonderful time too. It was SO good to get out with my horse and stop worrying about him so much! I've been obsessing over this horse's soundness for so long, and that coupled with trying to get him up to a level that the vets weren't sure he would ever get to, and my own stress at school and work, was taking a toll on me. 

Plus, pirouettes make me dizzy!

I am so glad that I can enjoy these moments with him! I love having my old horse back who I don't have to obsess over... as much.

Back to "normal!"

This summer I'm planning on riding him all over the hills of Morgan Hill. As much as I adore riding him in the dressage arena, it's not fair to him that every time I put him in the trailer, he goes to a new sandbox. 

Not a sandbox!

But today it was back to the dressage work! He had yesterday off because I had an exam and then work, but today I had plans to do all the lateral work and maybe some extensions. This plan was dependent on my arena being useable, which it wasn't! So I managed to do some really cool basic exercises just using the outside of my arena (the only non-gross part). Here is my short list of things I managed to do before both of us were totally bored:

- 10, 10, 9, 9, 8, 8 exercise (10 steps trot, 10 steps canter, etc... I got him down to 2 steps trot, 2 steps canter!)

- canter-halt transitions (THESE WERE BEAUTIFUL)

- two steps medium in trot

- no-stirrup work

Tomorrow I have plans for setting up my dressage court. I got brand new dressage letters for christmas so I want to run through 4-2 in my makeshift court! I'm planning on actually measuring out where the arena needs to be in order to be as close as it can get to a real court. 

The horse, of course, has plans for more trail riding...