Thaw's In

At Last It's Warm

Well, "warm" is relative but somewhere in neighborhood of 40f feels like a veritable heat wave at this point.

The ring was sort of thawed, at least enough to have a bit of a school before dark.

Since Tucker is the horse of the hour, I rode him. Again he was pretty steady considering how making a circle consisted of hitting lovely sand, soggy sand, soggy snow and not so soggy snow. We managed about 20 minutes of walk, trot and canter with me concentrating on sitting up correctly and using my seat as I was supposed to.

Tucker is a little frustrating about keeping his head out and neck stretched within the parameters Patrice set for us, but maybe the erratic footing has something to do with it. I must admit that his canter is much more forward so perhaps, when the ground settles down, the trot will be more consistent too. I did have some nice moments where I could feel him really using his back end in the trot, so it's there. Guess I'll just have to be patient.

Now, the fun thing was that this time, Tucker was pulling a Chance when we tried to pass the gate to the trail the first time. So, once I had managed our schooling session, I headed for the gate and he, quite eagerly let me know he wanted to take a hack.

Out we went and just before sunset, we had a lovely hack in the snowy woods. He was a perfect gentleman and I was glad I'd decided to take him out.

By the time I got back it was a darkening dusk, so I opted out of riding anyone else. Had the footing been better, I would have used the ring lights and given both Toby and Chance a little school, but it just wasn't worth it.

A few more days of temperatures like this and all will be well again. The weather forecast looks pretty good for the temperature, but there are showers predicted off and on for the next 10 days. The ring will still be fine as even when wet, the sand is OK for riding. However the paddocks and field will be a mess.

Then, I have to start worrying about what to do with Mrloseashoe Tucker.

Poppycat came for breakfast. He was extraordiarily wary of me, but he did eat eventually. I opened the window a crack in the sunroom where Mitzi (mommycat) is still being held captive. By the end of the week I hope to let her back outside...unless she decides she wants to be housecat....not.