Saturday, November 17, 2012

The horse who makes me smile

Indiana weather graced us with temps in the 50's yesterday and granted me another ride outside!  I rushed my husband out of the house to make it to the barn in time to catch enough daylight to get in a ride.  Yes - I had planned to work on trailer loading (the mare who was self loading this summer has decided she would rather not get on the trailer when asked) but could not resist the milder temps and no wind of a November day.

A wonderful advantage of having a body clipped and blanketed horse is how much time I save on grooming.  I love to groom and still give Riva the full treatment after our rides - but it is so nice to pick out her feet, swipe the brush over her lower legs, girth area and back, tack up and get on.

We headed straight to the galloping track and made several tripss up and down the back side - rest of the track was a bit too muddy from our crazy rain/snow mix on Monday.  We spent most of the time cantering, then trotted in to the outdoor dressage arena to school.  Riva was in front of my leg the entire ride - transitions were smooth - there was a nice jump into the canter when cued - just one of those rides where I had a smile on my face the entire time.

My husband helped me with my canter circles at A, which I was making too small and coached me thru several canters across the diagonal with a switch to trot in the corner, pick up the other lead and canter across the opposite diagonal.  Riva loves these!

I was telling my husband on the drive home that I love those rides where Riva and I are on the same page.  But we go thru many a ride where we are not even reading the same book...

6 comments:

Jessica said...

I *LOVE* rides like that!! =-)

AmberRose- Girl With a Dream said...

Wow sounds like you had a really good ride, i might have to try that excersice in canter across the school, not tried that before but think ill give it a go. Glad you got another ride in :)

Amy said...

Those are the rides that keep us coming back for more even of they are few and far between. Steady and I had the opposite ride yesterday he even almost ditched me out in a field. But of course I will climb right back up next ride expecting that perfect ride. Glad you got to enjoy this lovely weather we're having.

Karley said...

woo hoo! great rides are the best!! :)

Hillary said...

Sounds like a SUPER ride! Riva is so cute!!!

Achieve1dream said...

Sounds amazing! What a great ride! :D I love the cartoon horse too hehe.