I didn’t intend to ride tonight. I went to check on Bonita and clean her stall. We have been having huge thunder and lightning storms the last few days. Bonita was kept in for a couple of days this week. Not because of the storms. She had figured out the she could crawl under the field fence into the paddock next to hers. The grass is up to her eyeballs. Needless to say, what girl could resist the temptation? she ended up with a good scratch across her rump parallel to her dorsal stripe. I wanted it to stay clean, so she stayed in. She will only get turnout in the indoor arena until we go to Tired Dog Ranch. The cut has scabbed over nicely and is not in the saddle area. So I saddled up and we rode.
This was out fifteenth ride. We worked in the indoor for about fifteen minutes. Bonita is in season and showed me so by complaining a little bit at my leg on her asking her to trot. She balled up and got a tag ‘light in the front’ as they say. A good Eeehh, Ehhhh! and growl and she gave it up.
I’ve been practicing making right angle turns across the arena and after a bit of that, I got off. Then it was outside to the front of the barn. I haven’t ridden her out there yet. I mounted up in the parking area and we rode into the grass outdoor arena. It has been mowed recently. Part is still tall grass, most is in rows with areas of grass sticking up like a punk rocker’s spiked mohawk. And a small area is mown evenly. We walked around both ways for a while. Bonita was alert, but didn’t spook. She just watched very carefully. Cars went by. Birds moved in the hedge and she was fine.
I went on to trotting, practicing spiralling circles and lots of transitions. Trot six strides or so, walk, whoa, walk six strides, trot, walk, trot and on. She has a nice little trot that’s easy to sit when she relaxes. I also let her move out to see what her bigger trot is like. It’s really quite nice! I love that she moves out with just a small squeeze or vibration of my calf. No hesitation, she happily moves out and happily comes back down to walk and whoa.
I also continued with turns on the forehand. We are up to about a quarter turn, then she goes into sidepass. She is a bit stiffer from the right leg, but improving. When we were all done, she enjoyed some grazing on that grass that is so green from the recent rains.
The rain has been invigorating. It is a bit cooler, yet humid as well. It’s not our normal weather. We are usually going into straight, sunny weeks by now. I feel for anyone who has hay cut or baled out in the field. A lot of the uncut grass is laying over flat from the downpours. I do hope that it lets up in a couple of weeks for the SMR meeting.
For a day when I didn’t plan to ride, it certainly turned out well.
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