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Annual Trail Rides: 22/200 We have had seven consecutive days of -20 to -30C and it’s been all about layers, heated boots, proper scarfs and mitts and managing ride time and speed. Ive found the trick for riding in this weather is to never walk longer than 10 minutes. Trotting is preferred to cantering (although I do cantalope a few times) as we can do longer distances and it keeps everyones blood pumping. The trail footing has been stupendous. Really fast tracks on both the wide trails and narrow forest tracks. Most of the debris has been removed or cut down by our volunteer groomers and so nothing much gets in our way. A little spook at the occasional branch or twig remains particularly when cantering. Q gave me some beautiful cantalopes on the buckle today which is a testament to his level of relaxation and general contentedness. He is also getting better at picking the right lead without contact so Im pretty happy about that. Ive also gotten bolder about where we trot and have star

Annual Trail Rides: 20/200 We have been blessed these last few days by some amazing weather and footing. I rode every one of the last four days and hit the big 2 0 milestone today with a beautiful 90 minute ride in great company. I have had two solo rides, and two accompanied rides this week. Some of the rides were short and fast, some were long and slow ... and one of them was long and fast. I was so tired from that ride that I needed epsom salt bath, heating pad, and alleve to deal with my aching lats. I was back out there today and had a blast with three other riders. With the amount of snow hanging off the trees, we had to do lots of ducking and dodging, and we ended up with our saddle seats filled with snow a few times. Here are a few snapshots from my rides these last few days. I continue to be in awe of the winter wonderland. Sometimes the fields are lit up like diamonds, other times we go through tunnels of trees loaded with snow, and sometimes we canter on fast track with the

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.

Annual Trail Rides : 15/200 With the wind chill it is bitterly cold today at -20C. That with some sore muscles after yesterday’s ride makes me very happy to take today off. Yeah, working day! The woods are exceptionally beautiful this week, and the footing is crisp and crunchy. Ive been seeing mirages of the Rocky Mountains through the treetops as the snow has hardened and created stiff peaks. I find it fascinating to be transported to a different world by a light change in perception. Maybe you see it too? Had a good ride out with the BO yesterday. We are reconditioning one of her riding horses, so the pace was 33% slower than usual but we still got in some lovely jogs and lopes. Q continues to express his displeasure with his radar ears and body tension when the other horse edges too close. But a little heat of my calf takes away some of his worries (although there are probably lingering “bunnies in the basket” as per Warwick Schiller . He prefers to lead, or follow ... but this sid

Annual Trail Rides: 14/200 The volunteers were busy busy yesterday clearing the debris from the trails. We had some glorious outings even if the weather dropped to -10C. The snow hardened making for crunchy footing and stabilizing the trees. Just another day in our winter wonderland.

Annual Trail Rides: 12/200 We had a wet dump of snow and mild weather which made for quite the enchanting forest. The boughs of the trees were bending over to create tunnels of mystery. Q has become quite the trooper about walking over fallen trees and he really proved his worth today! He even picked his way through deep snow and fallen tree trunks down a hill without batting an eye. His surefootedness is improving with age! The trails were littered with fallen branches and trees and the occasional wind gusts of 50 km/h were prompting more trees to fall. A big pine tree fell near us, with a KaBOOM and Q had quite the start (me too). I almost turned around but decided to go just a bit further. I tightened the reins, and no doubt communicated my nerves which had Q jigging and jogging most of the way. By that point I didnt mind because we were headed home and as far as I was concerned, the sooner the better. Our volunteer patrollers were out in force cleaning up best they could. Lots of w

Annual Trail Rides: 11/200 I arrived at the barn after a day of rest for Q. As I walked across the parking lot, Q popped up his head as usual and approached the fence. We began the first steps of our greeting ritual. He is second from the bottom in the pecking order of the three geldings and one stud colt, but he is BFF with the alpha gelding. So when I arrive, the others usually give him a wide berth as he races to the gate. I clip on his lead, he slinks out, I shut the gate, he gets a treat, and we move on. Lately the geldings have been barging him while at the gate, which spooks him and he abandons me. So these last few weeks I have tried a new trick with him, doing all the steps except not clipping his lead. This allows for a faster exit from the paddock, but does mean that he is loose. But since he is waiting for his treat, he sticks to me like glue and I just clip on his lead on the outside. One of the boarders caught me practicing this new trick and was totally amazed. But as us

Annual Trail Rides: 10/200 (updated) Tracking well on my annual riding goal thanks to some very mild weather and amazing footing maintained by our club volunteers. We’ve had long and slow rides, short and fast rides, solo rides and group rides. Yesterday marked 6 rides in a row and both Q and I will enjoy NOT riding today. Snow and colder weather starts this weekend, so its time to get the extra layers out of storage. Until then, we will enjoy this version of our winter wonderland.

My last horse Jazz passed over the rainbow bridge way too early at the age of 13 but forced me to learn some very important lessons about opinionated horses. Having had pretty easy horses up to that point, including his mom, I did not understand, appreciate or even see the warning signs until one summer day at the overcrowded warm-up ring of a local horse show, he proceeded to back me up out of the arena with a complete loss of the forward button. He was 5 at the time, and just at the age where temper tantrums can begin. When I called up my coach to restart lessons, I remember describing the situation as “no big deal”. Boy was I wrong. That was when my high school (and his) began. My coach would need to repeat the same mantra many times, and over many years, before it finally stuck. "Train the Brain." Four years later I ended up with a toolbox of gymnastics and patterns that work the mind. It is also when I made the transition to trail classes and equitation patterns in both

Annual Trail Rides: 8/200 I rode on trail four days in a row and my horse doesn’t know it, but we might even be doing 6 days in a row. First day was a challenge as he was a fire-breathing dragon and cantering was not safe. Second day was brilliant as we went for speed and distance yet he was still go-go-go to the end. Third day I was exhausted and he seemed a little tired so as we were cantering on the buckle down one of the long lanes I felt him ask if we should slow down. I didn’t answer, and the next stride he was trotting. So I figured he was tired. Went out today on a solo ride and took full advantage by cantering and trotting everywhere. It was going to be a short 45 minute ride so I wanted to get the most out of it. We cantered so much on the amazing footing that my eyes were tearing up. Finally, I was tired. So I figured we would walk the rest of the way home. Weather was a balmy 0C and despite Qs fluffy winter coat, he never broke a sweat. Going down one of the long lanes, one

Annual Trail Rides: 6/200 I had so many topics I thought I might cover in this blogpost: the craziness of this week, our sudden plunge into lockdown and curfew, limitations on barn access, the start of another online term at school, the craziness of my unleashed dragon on trails ... but honestly ... Life Is Good! Had some spectacular rides today and yesterday in amazing footing with my wonderful buddy Q. He was hot yesterday and cantering was not safe as we were just barely on the edge of control. So we trotted and did lots of collected/lengthening trot transitions on trail until we got to some version of normalcy. We went back out again today and cantered and trotted to our hearts content. Even after 2 hours at speed, my horse was still GO-GO-GO. I just love this horse! And right now he is just incredibly fit and strong. And we saw an owl at sunset yesterday, which is my self-declared spirit animal and one which I spot at major life transitions. So, what transition is in store for 202

Annual Trail Rides: 4/200 I have been toying with the idea of a riding objective for a while but didn’t want to commit to tracking mileage for an entire year. So I decided, spurred by silly facebook trolls complaining about the expensive trail pass we purchase every year ($105 Cdn, or $70 US), to see if I can get my average cost per trail ride down to 0,50$. What a hoot! Of course the pass cost is but a drop in the bucket of the other costs of horse ownership and I do benefit (knock on wood) from a horse that is sound and healthy and only needing routine veterinary care. Board is up this year but Vet costs are pretty mundane, including regular dental care. I keep my horse barefoot with a trim every 5-6 weeks and aside from occasional thrush which disappeared these last two years since we changed his bedding to peat moss, my horse is fit as a fiddle.  The pass cost represents 1% of my horse expense budget, and so at 200 rides in a year that would bring my total cost per ride to $50. On

This last holiday season was constrained, to say the least. In addition to COVID-related restrictions, our trails were covered in ice and we were all stuck inside for 9 days. The drama! Everyone was "off" for 2-3 weeks in a semi-form of quarantine to slow the progression of COVID and so had way more time to come to the barn to provide "essential services" to their horses. This created a tornado of emotions in our 20x60meter arena limited to 4 riders at a time in different disciplines, from jumping to western to dressage. And of course the paddocks were iced over, horses had no turn-out for days, and everyone wanted to have exclusive access to the arena to either free lunge or turn-out their horses. We also had new barn management in force, and despite having just signed a new contract in November, we were told a few days before the holidays that we could not ride, lunge, or turn out our horses on Christmas or New Years Eve. Being primarily a trail barn for 20+years,