New ground

Love that view!

The snow we slushed through Monday was a thing of the past by yesterday afternoon.  At close to 70', it didn't have much of a chance.  A few white traces lingered in the low spots, but for the most part it was the squish underfoot posed a challenge. 

Our usual pasture was snow-free but muddy and slippery.  None of my remaining options were great, but I picked the field to the east as the best of the lot - I don't usually do more than poke around if I ride there, as it's considerably more sloped and the ground is rougher.  But it does have better drainage so I was hoping it would be drier.  And it was - but there were still plenty of spots that went "squish" under Sunny's hooves.  Still, he wasn't actually sliding, and as long as I kept the pace moderate he wasn't cutting up the field, either.

So no loping, which has been a familiar theme while riding at home lately.  And not a lot of trot, either.  But even slow we could do lots of bending, yielding and flexing and work on collected walk and sitting trot.  I'm still struggling with half-passing.  I get my rights and lefts mixed up.  But side-passing is getting easier.

I'd hoped to get another ride in today.  Unfortunately, it's back to being seasonally drippy, cold, dreary this morning.   But 50's for tomorrow and 60's by the weekend means more great riding weather is only a day away.