Weekend update: Finally, Riding!

I've been scanning everyone's riding posts with jealous eyes these past few months, wondering when I'd actually get a chance to hear some hoofbeats on the trail myself. So, I'm thrilled to report that I've actually managed two rides in the space of a week (well, three if you count the 5 minute jog around the pasture on Sunny Saturday a.m.).

Holiday Monday after the 4th Rufus and I had our ride - doesn't he just look thrilled?

You'd think we loped 10 miles
rather than the four we walked

He was a good boy, and didn't have hysterics over the moving road-carpet of baby frogs we encountered, although he did look askance at the plinking and plashing from the ditches as the bigger hoppers hit the water. Most of the ditches are still brim-full from all of the rain, and the frogs are taking advantage of the water to multiply like crazy - hopefully in such numbers that they're cutting down on the mosquito populations at the same time!

This past weekend we loaded Sunny up - first horse in the new trailer! YEAH!! - and headed over to the vets' place for a ride. The trailer must ride okay, as he loaded nicely for the return voyage, as well. I got a hard time for letting him turn around and walk out when I unloaded him, but really - he'll back out if I want him to, and given that he can stand completely sideways in the trailer with room left over (yeah, I know, I have a short horse end to end, not to mention top to bottom!) I don't really think letting him step out head first is that big a deal.

We rode about 8 miles walking most of the way with a bit of trotting here and there. Sunny was prince charming considering he hasn't been out of the pasture since last September/October some time. I didn't take the camera along, so no pics, unfortunately.

Passing the first of several herds of cows we encountered the two Quarter Horses in the group had "avoidance issues" and kited backwards repeatedly until we'd passed them. Not sure what was up with that, as both are seasoned roping horses - herding anxiety? They did fine with all the other cows we saw, including the three or four loose ones (the owners were in the process of putting the fence back up) that spotted us coming and high-tailed it for safer ground.

In contrast, both of the "flighty" Arabians, Sunny and Rufus, checked the bovines out and moved on - Sunny kept looking around to see what exactly the other two were so worried about. You could almost see the thought process: "Huh... I see cows... something out there must be scary...". He just kept walking along head up, ears swiveling busily as he tried to spot whatever they were so concerned about. Of course, I was giggling to myself and trying not to smirk. *grin*

Thankfully, after the initial cow episode aside, it was an uneventful ride. We had enough breeze to keep the bugs off, which was nice since it was also pretty warm. There were still a ton of tiny frogs hopping every which direction.

In the trailer post-ride

In other news of my world - M had his second riding lesson. (He's getting so TALL!) I took some pictures inside, but managed to capture nothing but blurrrr.

He rode Justice, a 19-year-old Arabian who's seen a lot of kids. A really lovely boy not just personality-wise. He looks about half his age.

Thunder's gash is almost completely healed -
This is actually from last week. This week it's just a fine black line with hair starting to grow.

Hunting season, frogs, dead birds & Sunny gets a new winter blanket

Hunting season and harvest have both started. This line of trucks stretched over a mile out from the elevator last Monday morning.
In spite of the fact that we had snow just last week, the itty bitty creatures of the forest are still out and about.

Orange-hatted pheasant hunters are cruising the back roads in search of pheasants. Word is that the hunting locally isn't that great yet - in spite of the line of grain trucks, not enough of the harvest is in to have the birds appearing in any great numbers. We had at leat 5 cars troll past about 10 mph while we were out with the horses this afternoon. In spite of the fact that everything's clearly posted "NO ROAD HUNTING - LIVESTOCK PRESENT" they still look - at least until they see people standing around staring at them.
I suspect that this fellow was a road-hunter casualty. He was laying along the fence in the lower horse lot. He's not the big hawk we've seen hanging out on the fence posts along the road lately, at least I hope he isn't. I picked removed him so the cats & dog (not to mention the horses) wouldn't nose him - or eat him - just in case he was sick and not shot.

The horses have all put on their winter coats. I haven't ridden in three weeks - a combination of weather and hunters. I was really hoping to get out and ride this weekend (and maybe I will yet tomorrow). I have a new saddle pad combination to try out with Sunny. A Cashel 3/4" foam pad and a 1/4" felt liner pad for underneath. Fingers crossed!

And Equestrian Collections had a really good blanket sale going on, so I ordered a new turnout. We don't generally blanket at all in the winter, but I like having a couple of good waterproof blankets on hand just in case. And T is still planning on going deer-hunting west river in late November. They'll ride in and camp, and as cold as it gets, Rufus may appreciate having a cozy new blanket by then.

Hopefully, I'll have a Sunny-wearing-a-blanket pic tomorrow. I had the camera in my pocket today, but I remembered it was there after I'd already had the blanket on, off, and Sunny was back out in the pasture. He was not thrilled about the rustling noise the waterproofing on the blanket was making.

How long is long enough?

Tonight I had an hour. One hour total, from stepping out of the car at the farm to stepping back in. The kids had been promised we'd go bowling, and between supper, the inevitable teen cry of, "I have to do my hair!" before leaving the house, and getting the horses called up, my evening was a lot shorter than I'd initially planned. Funny how that seems to happen!

We had rain last night and all morning before it cleared, so it was hot and sticky and we arrived at the farm in the evening lull when the breeze dies and mosquitoes and heel flies attack in swarming droves. The horses were quick to come in, and while they were muddy from the rain earlier in the day, Sunny is too fastidious to be much of a wallower, so it was the matter of minutes to get him brushed off and tacked up.

H took over my camera, so she gets the photo credit.

The frog prince survived his horse encounter
unsquished, although it was a near thing.

After I convinced H to part with my camera for a bit, T took some video, but I neglected to tell him keep it short, so I'll have to see if I can edit it into short clips tomorrow. I got in about 15 minutes of nice circles and serpentines, but mosquitoes - is there a name for those hovering masses of bloodsuckers? A fog? A whine? A welt? Whatever you call them - they kept us up on the driveway and lower lawn where the grass was short. (I wish we could work up even a small bit of ground for an arena, but pasture's at too much of a premium.... gotta keep the sheep happy!) Staying out of the long grass did help a bit with the bugs, but not as much as Sunny'd have liked!

When I was through I tossed M up for a brief lead-line session, leaving just time to untack, brush & turn out before my hour was up.

M & Sunny get reacquainted

My quandary though, is this - is a 15-20 minute ride better than nothing, or am I just encouraging a short attention span? Do I continue ride on these shortened evenings and hope I can get something accomplished? Tonight our 15 minutes felt good, and brief sessions for groundwork - five minutes here, 20 slipped in there.... I have good results with those. But for under saddle work, I suspect that when I consistently don't have enough time to spend, I'm ending up ingraining a lack of work ethic. I really don't want that. I know some of you out there ride on tighter schedules than mine - what's your answer? Is an occasional long working session enough to keep things in tune? Indoor arena, lights (wishful thinking...)? Or am I worrying for nothing?