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Annual Trail Rides: 70/200 Well the warm and sunny weather came back but we had to endure two days of heavy wind that spook the bajesus out of me when riding in the woods. Q was great and hot to trot. Much energy and spunk, which had me riding with my legs off. Just a hint of an upward transition and he was off like a flash. The big happy news is that fellow trail buddy C (our summer intern last year) is back, hopefully! We had our first ride together in over 7 months and it was glorious. We caught up on all the changes in her young 21 year life, and I shared my latest anecdotes. When you add on decades, the life changes are small and incremental. But when you are just staring your adult path, the roller coaster of reversals and stops and starts are much more exciting. So we headed out on a massive long trail with lots of beautiful speedy trots, and I quickly realized I was way overdressed with my hoodie. I endured the heat and sun and just enjoyed the moment. 28 years of separation ma

Annual Trail Rides: 68/200 Hello Mr Winter, are you back again? Not an April Fools joke, but a late spring snow storm after the trees and flowers had started to bloom. Bad timing Mother Nature! And it was cold! My body no longer tolerates below freezing temperatures after April 1. Even with my toe warmers I was cold. Got out with buddy B again and we had a nice time, until he started fussing with his saddle while going down the narrow ravine with the steep cliff on the side (and a site of a major horse accident a long time ago where the horse and rider fell down the cliff and the rider broke her back). Something afluttered in the creek below and it echoed in the ravine sending Bs horse into a panic, 180 spin and bolt to then land in my lap. Good old trusty Q saw it all unfold and blocked the path with a 90 degree spin but also creating an open door for him to take an abrupt exit, stage left, should things get worse. B got his horse back under control and proceeded down the ravine. And

Annual Trail Rides: 66/200 Its been a good week with some solo and accompanied rides. I preferred my solo rides this week, to be honest. I think I needed the quiet of a no pressure ride where I didn’t have to worry about somebody else. Cases still on the rise here during our third wave, and so confinement rules are rising with a shutdown of interprovincial borders. Qs canter is continuing to improve, especially for his leads and steady pace. Sometimes he gets too slow and drops to a trot, so I usually need to prime him with my inside leg to keep going. Or at least keep that leg ready to prime. The spring sillies have mostly abated, but probably because I rode so often this week (six times). Today I went out with a new boarder friend and we had a fabulous time riding the trails for 2 hours and learning about each other. We met lots of families walking out, and as usual we were asked if they could take our picture. My standard reply these days is yes, if they send me the pic. So today we

Annual Trail Rides: 60/200 Its been a good week! Footing is great, weather is dry and sunny and almost feels like summer minus the bugs.Q has been giving me some good rides although he is testing the boundaries and I haven't quite perfected the lope on the buckle. Even yesterday he started out in a spooky mess jumping at shadows on the ground.  I had my first ride with buddy B yesterday. It had been three months since we had last ridden together because we were both on covid barn schedules that didn’t match up. For the past year, he has been on a barn schedule restricted him to 5 days a week in 2 hour slots. Unfortunately that makes for very limited trail riding when you substract the time to tack up, cool down and wash up. But his dressage BO doesn’t understand because you don’t need much more than 2 hours to ride in a rectangular box. But he didn’t want to fuss or object, so one year later he is still in the same spot. As for me, things had been pretty loosey goosey from May to D

Annual Trail Rides: 57/200 It was a bit of a journey, an unexpected one, but one Im glad to have conquered (for today). After being mostly off trail for the last month, and occasionally squeezing in a little walk when the ice wasn't too bad, it seems that my riding anxiety peaked when I finally found myself back out on trail alone and facing a lovely canter track. A few things compounded the problem, as is usually the case: Spring ... yes Q has the spring sillies, and his "sleeping dragon" routine did not fool me one bit. Of course Q is less prone to spring sillies than my previous youngster who gave me quite the long list of accidents and injuries, and I probably anticipate these things more than Q deserves. Not enough riding at speed ... a body at rest, stays at rest ... my confidence with speed on trail with all the distractions and diversions of the real world (deer, dog, biker, maintenance crew, fallen tree) fades to black if I do not push myself to ride at speed.

Annual Trail Rides: 54/200 Well that was a long three weeks! I did manage to get out a bit, but wow it was difficult to get some trail time in March. Now that the weather is warming and the sun is working hard, the snow and ice are starting to melt and we have regained our wide trails reserved for x-country skiing. Today was also my first ride out alone in a long time, and I could really feel my anxiety working overtime. Q was angling for speed I kept it mostly at a walk with just a bit of trotting so that I could navigate us through the icy patches. Meanwhile I kept thinking about Warwicks rabbits while Q spooked at logs, and thinking about Qs bolting departure last fall when we got spooked by the loose dog on the ravine, and thinking about the deer as they tore through the forest. Q was happy to trot when we did, and he gave some nice relaxing blows but was also regularly accelerating as much as possible. Singing slow songs helped, and this is just one of those things where I need mo