A Reprieve From Winter

Yes, we still have snow. But our "January thaw" is officially happening, and Sofie and I are very grateful for that. She was getting stiff and sore from the cold weather, she was bored, bored, bored with the indoor arena, and I was getting way too irritated by small things, like the horses being kept in when the weather wasn't truly horrible, and worried about Sofie's longterm soundness. After all, she was "used and abused" for quite some time before I got her and put her on a sensible conditioning program, fixed her feet, worked on her body and gave her a joint supplement. We seriously needed a break from winter.

And we got one. This week has been lovely, with temps in the low to high thirties. It was sunny and beautiful, and warmer outside than in the arena. So we ventured out into the snow. It was deeper than it was back in December (duh), but not too deep for Sofernutter. The first day out we just walked, since she had been having issues with stiffness and "off-ness". When we went out again, she was a bit "touchy" while being groomed and saddled, but she seemed better than she had been. So we went out again and had more fun in the sun (and snow). We worked on bending and not falling in while tracking left (which we'd been having major problems with in the indoor). I trotted her a bit, too, and she felt much better and more forward than she had been feeling. She was willing to trot towards the barn, but when I asked her to trot away from the barn, I got balking and kicking nonsense. I know this is a training issue since she will trot away from the barn on the trail...she is just used to me asking her to trot towards the barn in the yard. Well, no more. Today I'm riding with the dressage whip so I can reinforce my aids. I know we can work through this, I just have to be strong and not get nervous, as I am apt to do when my horse starts bouncing around underneath me.

Thanks for the compliments on Sofie's feet in the last post. I'm seriously proud of the progress they have made!

Will write a longer post when the time presents itself. Right now, I'm off to the barn!