Late today I went out to get in another ride with Keil Bay. He came in as usual but got it in his head that we were going to open the fence to the front yard and let them graze down there. Cody joined him, and the donkeys, and they lined up at the fence line, waiting.
Suddenly Salina came out of the barn, doing the biggest, most beautiful walk you've ever seen. This was her 'I'm 10 years old if I'm a day' walk, and I haven't seen it lately. She too was focused in on that fence and she crowded in right behind the geldings and the donkeys.
Unfortunately our nights and days are still going up and down in terms of temperature. We had frost last night and tomorrow a high of 88 - not quite time to start the front yard grazing we usually do for an hour or two each evening as they work up to it.
I brought Keil Bay in to the barn and closed the barn doors on that end so Salina, Cody, and the donkeys could graze the grass paddock. My daughter was riding the pony.
A few minutes later Salina trotted by - looking quite elegant and happy with Cody and the donkeys not far behind. They were all very alert and happy and I took a minute to go watch them.
A little later, Keil Bay and I ended up in the arena with my daughter and Cody. Since Keil mostly gets ridden by himself, I decided that today we would follow. So we went pretty much everywhere Cody did and we increased the trotting to a full lap around the arena in each direction after a nice warm up. We did some circles and turns on the haunches. Today's improvement for Keil was being very responsive to my leg and needing almost no rein aids. Some of it was following Cody, but some was me getting more balanced - a result of my hip joints loosening up.
The third day is always the charm for me when I'm coming back into riding after some time off. Last ride my stirrups felt about a notch too long when I posted, but today, my legs had stretched out and everything felt just right. Keil had a nice rhythm in the walk and trot and although it got dark enough that the arena light came on, he remained perfectly behaved and rode easily into the spooky dark corner by the woods.
When I got off, my legs had that nice, stretched out, strong feeling they get when I've been riding regularly and in balance.
Just like Salina, I felt like I'd lost a few years.
It's nice when all these good things coincide.
billie hinton’s camera-obscura:
life and lessons on November Hill Farm
10 comments:
Your ride sounds lovely. It's so nice when it all comes together and we start feeling less balled up and more stretched.
Glad to hear Salina was feeling very perky today and strutting her stuff.
I'm glad you had a very nice ride with the Big Bay, and very glad that Salina was looking so spy.
Thank you, Arlene. It was most intriguing to me that Salina and I loosened up in body during the same few hours' time span.
Matthew, I am laughing at the image of Salina 'looking spy' - thinking Mata Hari here. :)
I think a crumb is lodged under the 'R' key again. . . :-P
Probably one of those sunflower seeds you gathered!
You're stringing them together now billie - wonderful! :)
Happy that Salina is feeling so good, and I LOVE the use of spy as an adjective.. or maybe adverb?! ;)
That all sounds very good. What a nice feeling you had there. I can really relate to it.
C, it's kind of wonderful when they all weave together.
It's so spy... LOL.
Maire, thanks. I hope you're having good rides with Ben this week.
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