Misty Trail Rides

It has started raining out here in fire land, which is honestly so fabulous. And I say that as someone who does not have access to a covered arena! 

Most of our "rain" though has just been aggressive misting. I rode both TC and Sunny up into the hills and by the time I was done with both horses, I'd been covered in a thin layer of water that pretty much evaporated when I got back to the barn. 

But I got to break out my winter riding gear, which was nice (it was a frigid 58 degrees after all). I swapped out my trail running shoes for my mud boots and my sun shirts for a regular long sleeve shirt. On the trails, I wore my big down jacket mostly because I love wearing it and will wear it even if it's inappropriately warm out. The moment I won't pass out due to heat stroke, that jacket is in my car. 

I love this little look out and TC is so good about
putting his ears forward here!

I've never been a lover of winter but these last few winters, aside from dealing with giant storms and crowded covered arenas, have not been so bad for me. I think I'm growing to appreciate the winter instead of dreading it as I always did as a kid. Plus, it helps that TC is now pretty amazing year round.

Winter starting this early in the year though means that I might not be thinking the same thing in mid January when it actually *is* storming and I'm stuck outside with no covered arena and it's been winter for three months with another few months to go... but we'll see!  

I love these trails! I'll be sad to not climb them for
a while this winter

Anyway, knowing that we may end up being rained out of the hills for the rest of winter, I got both horses up onto the trails on Wednesday. 

TC was foot perfect as usual and so was Sunny. I rode both bareback and we did the long loops I usually do. I've managed to create a trail ride where you don't go on the same trail in the same direction more than once. It involves a lot of climbing up and down, but there are some flat portions as well. 

He gets this smug look on his face when I reach
into my pockets because he thinks he's earned a
cookie lol sorry buddy, just grabbing my phone

View of the ranch from the hills!

Sunny and I just wander while I listen to something or read something on my phone. But TC I'm more picky with. His body is feeling better and better and better with this work. I've worked a lot on his posture in the last year, but this most recent find seems to be working out really well for him. He felt super strong climbing the hills, which I ask him to do with his neck down so he doesn't engage his brachiocephalicus. The first time I trail rode him, it was apparent that he'd learned to climb hills with his neck up, which I thought was just a weird friesian thing. I wish I'd insisted from early on that he not climb hills that way, but I felt rude asking him for anything special on the trails. 

He still feels pretty weak going down the hills. There's definitely some weakness in his pectorals still, which is understandable. He's basically working 25 minutes, mostly in walk and trot right now as we build back. I think that causes him to want to rely on the brachiocephalicus, which is bad for his psoas, so I've been asking him to walk downhill with his neck not up in my face. That is REALLY hard for him, so he's been a little less stable going downhill. But he's perfectly happy to do that, I don't think it bothers him too much. If there's something I both deeply appreciate and despise about this horse, it's that he's very happy to just put his body in weird places without asking too many questions. So I can change his posture for the good really easily but I can also change his posture for the bad really easily. 

He's a wet rat of a pony lol

Sunny on the other hand feels insanely strong right now. Being in work just agrees with him and like I said in my last post, I'm really excited to get my mom back on him and keep him in full work no matter how much time either of us have. Right now with TC not in full work and me not having a new job (omg this week I've gotten so. many. rejections. it's really unpleasant to switch fields! I do not recommend), I have plenty of time to keep him going. 

He's a super trail pony and if I ever win the lottery I don't play, I would totally buy a pony just like him to just ride on the trail bareback and jump tiny fences on. He is sure footed and when the trail gets steep, he picks up a super smooth canter for four steps and then goes back to walk. It's really fun!

Creeping on the barn and house below!

He stood out in the rain while I rode TC so he did
start out extra wet

Despite both horses being fairly wet and also packing their feet with sticky mud, it was a great day to trail ride. Hopefully this wasn't our last trail ride of the year, it shouldn't be. But we'll see! 

This weekend has even more rain, so I'm riding as much as I can between now and Sunday where it's supposed to rain all day. After that, we see how the arena deals with rain. It looked pretty amazing as I left the barn last night so hopefully today and tomorrow we can get quality rides in and then maybe we'll have to do some road walking next week to let the arena dry. 

I did look into tarps by the way and they are like $6k at least. That's more than it'd cost me to put him at a boarding facility (even the fanciest one in the area lol) so I passed on that. If I knew I'd be boarding there forever, maybe that'd be worth it, but I'm still thinking that the ranch may be just a year or two stopover for TC and I. Who knows though! Even with the rain, I'm not missing being at a boarding facility juuuuust yet (especially because his stall is connected to the barn and I can park right near it, so no dealing with rain until I get on him!).