Trails were lovely today and the sun was shining. Our trail buddy was very tolerant of trotting up his butt, as I had little control with my phone in hand. I was lucky to not drop my gloves or phone in my filming sequences.
After a month of shut-ins because of icy trail conditions, and a deep freeze with temperatures ranging from -18 to -30 ... what happens when the magic of fresh powder, bright sunshine and warm temperatures collide at the same time? Everyone plays hooky and heads for the trails! Conditions were just magical and my buddy and I headed out with our very fresh horses for 2.5 hours of pure bliss. We took a little stretch called the “race track” where the footing was glorious but our horses were so fresh that we kept it quiet at a big trot. It took 2 hours with lots of trotting and cantering before I had my horse back. But that is just what we needed. We saw riders, sleighs, skiers, ski-skaters, snowshoers ... and everyone had a big smile on their face. Our club volunteers had groomed the trails again in anticipation (third time within a week) so we were in footing heaven. And it was so warm (hovering above zero degrees) that we were perspiring under our winter coats. But our horses? De...
Annual Trail Rides: 16/200 Self steering horse trotting down the trail of a winter wonderland. Mild weather at +3C. Did my familiar loop in my best time of 39 minutes. 10 minutes of walking, 20 minutes of trotting, 9 minutes of cantaloping.
What a pleasure to spend the morning picking berries with my mom. The blueberries were not yet ripe, but the blackberries were starting to ripen. It was hard to see them from the trails but once we went through the thorny bushes they started to appear. Pickings were still a bit slim, and many of the fruits were a bit small. But we will go out two more times over the next two weeks and hope for more abundance. These babies were hiding behind some bushes My mom is 81 years young and still a firecracker. Although she stopped riding a few years ago, she still volunteers twice a week at the local horse rescue doing chores ... even stacking hay!!! Here is a picture of us on our palominos dressed up for the western pleasure pairs class. It was a hoot of a time, with tons of trail riding and the occasional shows. On trail, we enjoyed the nickname of the golden ghosts as we trotted and cantered through the forest. Mom & I on Mare & Son Things changed a while ago, and bot...
What a funny country. Somewhere stuck with one foot in the past and a delusion of the future. No wonder they have the highest number of psychiatrists per capita in the world. They seem to suffer from fatalism, and its contagious. Being a huge metropolitan city of 15M, public transit (and subways) are the backbone of transportation. While taxis are very cheap (2$ for a 15 minute ride), transit is even cheaper at 0.10$ and abundant for us as we are downtown. With rampant inflation and deflating currency, the government wisely decided years ago to remove cash payment and replace with a transit pay-as-you-go card called a SUBE. That way they could increase prices on a monthly basis and it would be seamless. But finding a place that will sell you the card? Turns out, thats the problem. For locals, its no big deal since they keep the cards forever. But tourists? Good luck. I had heard echos of this problem online, particularly exasperated by the pandemic. But Argentina had also shut down bor...
These last few weeks were rough. Flu, ice storm, power outage, work … meant I had little time for barn visits or riding. I tried to ride last week but met a bolting demon instead. I chose safety first and walked home instead. I let Q run around in the indoor arena but that ended up as a big fail as he skirted the big lake at one end bucking and leaping, until he tripped and flipped over with his saddle on his back. A big gash was opened over his eye. I tried to lunge in the limited space left, and I managed to get some of his energy out. I handwalked on the street and on some of the trails. And then today, miracle of miracles, I got my quiet trail horse back and we went out to enjoy some slushy fun in the forest. I probably have only ridden once or twice this last month, and its a joy to enjoy a warm sunny day while there is still some snow on the ground.
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