A Nice Ride

Before the Rain Comes In

The footing is super out on the edges of the field.  Nice dirt roads with no mud.

My arena isn't bad either. Except for the strange phenomenon of the ice build up under the piles of manure along the one side.  The horse manure seems to be amazingly insulating, as the snow just doesn't melt under a pile.  I spent about an hour poo picking--three wheelbarrow loads--cleaning up most of the arena area where I ride. I wanted to get it cleaned up before the heavy rains that are predicted arrive.

Earlier, I did get a nice trail ride in on Chance.  He was a bit reluctant about going out into the fields. I'm not sure why as he is usually pretty eager to go adventuring. But he seemed wary today and stopped a few times.  It could be because there were some guys out doing target shooting earlier. My friend Christina and her husband were out riding and apparently got pretty shaken up when they realized the guys were shooting just on the other side of some trees where they were riding.  So, I'm thinking perhaps Chance was a little spooked about the field.

He was easy to get going, though.  I asked for a little trot along the side of the woods and soon he rolled into a sweet, soft canter, so I just let him go for a stretch.  Then we walked again all the way out to the back off the woods. To my surprise, there is no sign of flooding back there, despite all the snow melt.  That just goes to prove how well the soil drains into the aquifer out there when it's not inundated with runoff from the warehouses.

That meant I could ride along the back of the farm we just preserved and then loop back along the road under the power lines.  The road along the back is another nice stretch, so I set Chance to trotting again and, sure enough, he popped into his wonderful, soft canter again.  We went for a good distance, then settled back to an easy trot and finally a walk back to the trail we'd started off on.  I decided not to go back through the woods since I thought I'd heard some ATV's back there and we came back home the same way we'd gone out.

It was another really nice ride on a really nice horse.  Chance is such fun to ride.

I thought about lungeing Toby and Tucker but decided not too--choosing to pick the arena instead.  I have boots to put on Tucker so I can work him if I want to, so that's not a real problem at this point.  I will have to monitor the weather, though, to see if we'd be better off putting his shoes back on rather than run the risk of his getting bruised again.  If it looks like the snow is really gone for the season, I'll do the shoes sooner than later.

I am honestly surprised that even with over a foot of melted snow, I don't have any serious mud.  But that may change. The forecast is calling for 1.5 inches of rain over tonight and tomorrow. That just might be the tipping point.

For now, it was just really nice.