Rhio was an absolute peach today. It was my first ride since the 18th, with a trip to Arizona (wonderful, though unfortunately horseless) over the holidays curtailing my December riding schedule. Our unseasonable, yet delightful, fall weather is spilling over into winter and we have been incredibly mild and snowless. I will confess some disappointment, as I really do like winter and find riding in the deep snow to be quite fun. However, the opportunity to get the horses out moving with the lack of snow has been hard to resist and their level of enthusiasm somewhat larger than I would normally expect in the winter.
Today, Rhio was really responsive and light without any of the rushing that he tended toward on our last ride. It was a short ride and nearly all walking, but he seemed to be just enjoying it as much as I was. After we turned for home and asked for a tiny increase in pace above the walk, instead of a trot he gave me a lovely walk-canter transition and continued on in his relaxed easy canter. I was in my bareback pad, as I nearly always am in the winter (warm tushy), and riding that 100 yards was bliss. The rest of the ride wasn't too shabby, either, and I was really proud of how carefully he negotiated the steep downhill with about 2" of powder snow masking the uneven ruts in its surface.
The following photos are from our ride on the 18th, which I didn't have time to write up before leaving on the 19th.
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| It was nearly 40 degrees! |
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| The neighbor's horses, Missouri Fox Trotters. |
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| Can you see how high he has his tail? The accelerator was a hair trigger this day and the brakes were a little sticky. |
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| Gesa & Paco were lovely companions, as usual. |
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| It looks wintry, but not to the usual degree for late December! |
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