2011-02-07

An Opportunity to Ride

Jill's newest riding buddy was a very nice person and had loads of confidence and enthusiasm around her horses.  And, her animals knew her and had a good rapport.  But, she didn't have as much natural horse sense and was just a beat behind Jill in reading their body language.

Jill had never seen any of the animals go, and she didn't know the property.  They would be riding roads and open fields and it was certainly a frisky day.  But the snow was deep and soft for falling off in and she was confident in her own abilities and looking forward to the fun.
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"Just so you know I am sitting on a VERY frisky little animal right now."  Jill announced as they got underway.  She knew the animal's owner thought the pony was bombproof but Jill could sense otherwise, ha.

In the end, or actually quite near the beginning, it was the even more bombproof paint that ditched his rider.  He flinched at the sound of a tree branch against riding helmet and lo and behold said helmet was laying in snow.  The rider could make a snow angel in the deep snow laughing so all seemed well.  But she had to walk the whole rest of the way, being unable to mount with out a block.

Meanwhile, the new saddle did not fit Jill's mount and she rode the hack like those sitting trot lessons in the olden days on the lunge line with no girth! ha. because the slightest bit of shifting weight really caused the saddle to slide even though the girth was impossibly tight!

The pony spooked here and there and would not stand at all. So Jill walked on, and found places for little circles and made many many 1 second halts as training method.  What a cute goey little girl! The deep snow was awesome because it did all the work of slowing the pony's rhythm.

Jill was proud on the final stretch when the mare would stand stock still, despite her paddock neighbour running the fence and whinnying in a frenzy, so they could chat with a passing car.  "Fun is cantering in deep snow.  It feels like swimming!" Jill told how in the olden days, if the water was high enough (from enough rainfall) and your mount was low enough you could go for a couple of swim strides in the deep parts when you went walking the creek.

She loved to use the weather as a training tool.