End of the year

-

Seems fitting to end the year of confinement and hibernation with a month of summertime sunshine and sunsets. Q is on vacation too, but getting the occasional grooming so he doesn’t turn feral. 5 weeks of bliss and then its back to winter.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel is not all rainbows and unicorns

-
Image
So our last weekend was a bust. The original plan was to fly to Cordoba, then drive to Villa General Belgrano (known for the largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany) in the foothills of the Andes mountains, with a day trip to pedestrian mountain village Cumbrecita … both towns known for their German heritage. I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend in the mountains with beer, sausage and schnitzel. A nice contrast to the beef, empanadas and cheese excesses of Buenos Aires. The AirBnB we rented was not great, better suited for young large drunk men needing space instead of comfort. It was made worse when the whole town shut down  at 6 pm  on Christmas eve with barely a stray dog stirring. We witnessed the shutdown shortly after the lamest lunch we have experienced, and started to panic as we had no food or water. We hit the last kiosko to close, and grabbed what we could to bunker down for likely two days (water, dulce de leche, coffee, tea, bread, ham, bananas). Is this our...
Read more

The hidden gait

-
Image
I had a plan. My horse had another. I wanted to canter. My horse wanted to bolt, spook, and gallop! So we trotted and cantered up hills and across trails until the poor guy was winded. I let him walk and catch his breath, which of course is a little challenging when he is still jigging. I thought he had calmed down and we could start practicing canter transitions when a pheasant startled in the bush. Poor Q was wired! So we kept on trotting until finally 10 minutes later he asked to walk. I got this little clip after thirty minutes of trotting and just before he asked to walk. He is looking a little sedate, finally. Eventually I got to do some canter work on a wider stretch of the trail. At first the circles were ovals but eventually Q figured out my game.  Which got me thinking ... will I ever gallop? My old timer cowboy trainer told me many moons ago to be very careful about never “opening up” my QH on trail. So we kept our speed to hand gallops in closed spaces. But many trainer...
Read more

Heaven

-
Image
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.
Read more

Lots of riding this week, so we had a spa day

-
Image
Had a great and fast ride with C the lovely intern. It left both of us (yes, even the spry 20 year old) exhausted and sore. Neither of us wanted to ride today. Here are a few clips from our trek. Q was happy to get some chill time. He really could care less about having a clean tail and mane. But I care! As a special treat I let him eat a beech tree. He enjoyed it more than the grass at his feet?!? Tomorrow I climb back in the saddle. Heatwave warning for the weekend so it will be easy riding in the shaded trails.
Read more

Wizard of Oz

-
Image
Q and I have been relishing the winter trails this week. The footing is firm and crunchy making for easy strolls on the wide groomed trails. The narrow trails are more challenging if we meet someone as the super deep snow forces us to do 180’s on a dime until the next intersection. I often joke that he moves with so much purpose on the trails, and have gotten into the habit of singing “We’re off to see the wizard” as we canter down the pine lined trails. He doesnt blink an eye at skiers, sleighs, rocks, dogs, or atv’s. This picture was snagged today as we passed a two horse sleigh. As you can see, he is totally chillax. Our trust is mutual and we have so much fun on the trails. Gotta hurry back out there before the weather turns.
Read more