Bareback Again

I rode bareback again today. It was already starting to get dark, so I thought that would be quicker than tacking Trouble up. While I was brushing the red mud off Trouble, hubby started taking the Christmas lights down off the barn, and fixing our malfunctioning arena light. And, he decided to use the mounting block to do so. So, I decided to try to mount bareback from the ground. Hubby said he wished he had a video camera of us. At first, Trouble clearly thought I was crazy. After awhile, she changed her tune to "Oookay, Mom. You keep jumping around like a nut. I think I'll take a nap." What a good little spotted horse! Lately, she hasn't been great at standing for me to mount. I haven't been helping by just ignoring that behavior. At least, this helped that! Instead of dancing off when I get on, she decided to take a nap.

Things to think about for next time:
1. Look up how to mount bareback!
2. Bring a dollar (or facsimile that I don't have to chase down!) to practice for the bareback class

Riding Again!

After not riding for awhile, I knew that I'd better ride today. And I had the whole day off, so there wasn't much excuse not to. I still took the lazy route and rode bareback.

I've also made a new rule: cleaning tack counts the same as riding (I mean, it won't count against me if I don't ride, but do clean tack!) My bridle is moving from the "needs cleaning" stage to "gross" stage. Ick!

Three Days in a Row...

Three days in a row of no riding. :( Hubby wanted to run some errands after work whilst we were in town, and he took me out for dinner. :) So we didn't get home until late. As soon as we got home, we were welcomed with a chorus of "You're laaaaaate!" Yes, Trouble was complaining that her dinner was not on time. And the horses are up in the pasture by the driveway, so they're easily able to make their complaints known.

Horses each got two small apples, quartered, added to their dinners.

Horses are wearing their blankets tonight, and then it looks like we can go through Monday without them. Hooray for warm weather! Cotton's spare blanket was ordered on cyber-Monday, and is still on backorder.

This morning, the temperature was 14, with an expected high of 43. I tried to tell hubby that I needed to stay home, to take the horses blanket's off at lunchtime, but he didn't go for that!

No Riding Today

Ready for my list of excuses?
1. It was my first day back at work after a break (puts me in a gloomy mood!)
2. Melting snow turned ground into a slip-and-slide
3. Wasn't feeling so great (I went to bed at 7!)
4. It's dark, and one of my arena lights is burned out! (Hmm, I really should fix this. Or get hubby to fix it)

In other bad news, Trouble did not eat her cookies fast enough and they molded. We participated in the COTH horse cookie exchange this year. It was fantastic! Both horses got really super packages. But I guess I wasn't feeding them fast enough (2 cookies each per day!)

More Snow

More snow and roads are closed. Makes for some pretty pictures, at least. And we fixed up Cotton's blanket yesterday, so the horses are now nice and snug.


And, of course, Trouble tries to eat the camera. But what else is new?

Merry Christmas!

We managed to break the record for the most snow (that fell) on Christmas Day. Apparently, we had 9 inches on Christmas in 1963, but it had fallen earlier in the week. The previous record was 0.8 inches, and the new record stands at 2.4 inches!



And I still managed to ride! Here's a picture for proof. Granted, it wasn't much of a ride, but anyway. Given the snow, I figure it still counts.

Not So Crazy Spotted Horse

I haven't ridden Trouble in over three weeks. Thus, I was expecting Trouble to be, well, Trouble! But she was amazingly good, for not having been ridden in ages. She was quite good to the left, but was impossible to keep straight going right. But at least there was no crazy bucking antics today.

New Year's Resolutions

My New Year's resolution for 2011 is to actually ride my horse! Lately, I've come up with a fair number of excuses for not riding. The largest of them is that we have to maintain the farm, so there is less time to ride than if I was boarding! So, I've revamped this blog to help encourage (and document!) my riding!

Any guesses as to how long this resolution will last? I am aiming for something modest - 4 days per week? That's doable, right?