Snow Day

Today we got a snow storm, and it's hilarious how people forget how to drive once snow is on the ground.  We live in Atlantic Canada.  It's not a surprise that we will get snow every year!

What happens when I get bored at the barn and no one is around

Even though we were also getting freezing rain and the roads turned out to be pretty slippery, I went out to the barn to see my boy.  Not surprisingly, it was quiet out there even though there was no school for the kids.

I have to say that I didn't have a good ride.  Nothing inherently bad happened.  On the contrary, he was a really good boy considering that he was cooped up because of the weather and I was too lazy to lunge him.  He did everything I asked him to, but it just felt like something was missing.

The past month's worth of rides have been so great, but then I talked to my barn owner the other day and really started to worry about whether or not my riding was adequate for the upcoming clinic.  I went out to the barn with the intention of videotaping myself and seeing a fantastic improvement in my skills.  This was probably a flawed plan from the beginning.  After all, there was nothing different really about today's ride than the rides I've been having, rides which I was ecstatic about until today.  I haven't had a chance to dissect the video yet, and unfortunately it's pretty blurry. But I was overall content with my position and hands, and Walker and I did a lot of canter work.  I was disappointed because I wanted to work on pushing him into the corners since he has a tendency to make the circle smaller, but I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be.  Then, to make matters worse, I decided to ride bareback after I exhausted us both, and I wasn't able to get him cantering.  I don't know what it is, since I have cantered him bareback before.  He was obviously tired from the ride, but I think I was probably more tired and lacked the strength.  Every time I kicked him, he just seemed perturbed with me, like when I took off his saddle, he was hoping that the ride was over.  I was already frustrated as it was that I hadn't successfully accomplished what I wanted to work on today (at least by my obviously too-high standards), so I ended up just giving up and getting off.

"Where is all the grass?  WHERE IS ALL THE GRASS?"

But I did take Walker out into the snow.  From what I gather, Walker came from somewhere warm, and I don't know if he's actually ever seen snow before.  He was puffing and blowing and was quite distressed that all the grass was gone.  You'd think that the humans didn't feed him or something, and we were going to leave him to forage through the tundra alone.  It was pretty cute.

"Maybe if I wish hard enough and long enough, it will go away"