Time off

I have been planning to give Rose two months off this winter, December and January. She's butt high again, and still growing like crazy. I've just been waiting to either have that perfect last ride or for December 1st to arrive. However, I think mother nature is trying to tell me that she has other plans.

Today I woke up sore from cross country skiing with AR on Saturday, and then proceeded trace clip three horses in the freezing (literally) cold weather. By two o'clock I was completely frozen to my core and every single muscle in my body ached. I still drove to the barn with the intention of riding my girl. However, bad weather was eminent, and I didn't want to be on the road too late tonight. For the first time in a while, Rose heard me at the gate, ducked her head around the loafing shed...

noticed me and decided to come to the gate...

rather than making me come to her.

For some reason the combination of the cold weather and her happy greeting made me just want to groom her and spend some time with her and not ride. At that moment I decided that her time off just started.

All in all, I think it is time for her vacation to start. She's been going very well, getting a hang of bending in both directions, stretching through her back, accepting of contact, her gates have become more balanced and consistent with less rushing, and our downward transitions are nice and reliable. Pretty good for a 3.5 year old that is being more or less trained by her amateur owner. In addition, I was only able to ride her one day last week due to weather and work schedule, and would have only been able to ride her one day this week also due to weather and holidays. It seems a bit silly to consider that "work" anyway. Our last ride may not have been the "perfect" ride, but it was darn good and satisfying, and will have to do. It was certainly good enough to cling to the memory of it for two months.

Now I guess I'm going to have to figure out some other sort of exercise for the next couple months...

Happy trails and swooshing tails!