Arena work never looked better!

Yesterday a drill team member e-mailed me asking me if I’d like to go riding with her. She lives south of us about 20 miles and owns 250 acres of land. Of course I accepted! DH agreed to take Chase with him (they were working on the race car) and I took Ty. Peggy’s daughter said she’d watch Ty while we rode. Perfect!

MIL and I saddled the horses at the barn and loaded up. We got to Peggy’s at around 6:30 and headed out on the trail. LLL was a bit excited but then I just hopped on (no GW) so it was to be expected. This was her first outing with other horses on a real trail.

The first hill we went down was nice. LLL was rocking back onto her hind end and taking things slowly. I hate when horses rush down hills. Peggy was very kind asking where I wanted to go and where I didn’t (there weren’t too many places I didn’t want to go). There were a lot of trees down off of the trail path so I took LLL over to them and we walked over the logs. A bunny ran out in front of us and caught her eye but only for a moment.

We came up on a dry creek crossing and LLL hesitated. After a few circles and not allowing her to go over it she finally walked over it without trying to jump. Peggy then asked if I was ok with water. Sure I was! Lucy on the other hand – she’s not to fond of water.

I told Peggy I’d like to try but I didn’t want her to wait on me all night. The creek was very rocky and had a small drop off and Lucy didn’t like it. She was practically sitting on her butt to avoid going into the water so I got off & did some sending exercises with her (which I still need to work on at home). I stood on a rock in the middle of the creek and sent her back and forth. She jumped the creek quite a few times before she finally decided to just walk through it.

Once I got her going through it then it was a matter of getting her to slow down and watch where she was going. She was bolting across and landing on big rocks. I was glad I’d put her boots on or her legs would have probably been cut up. I sent her across to the original side and mounted back up. We walked up to the creek and I asked her to cross which she did in a very nice, calm manner.

Once we were across Peggy showed us this beautiful rock hill! I wish I had taken my camera. We turned around and crossed the creek and headed off in a different direction. I put LLL up in the lead and we headed up a steep hill. I started chanting “I think I can, I think I can” as we went up the hill because LLL was starting to loose momentum. We made it and joked that I was going to give her a heart attack. For as much as she does she sure is out of shape!

We rode up and down more hills and over more creeks. Lucy was great! She would stop to paw in a few of the creeks but beyond that there was no more hesitation to go over them. I even asked her to cross a downed tree that was about as wide as she was tall (at the belly) and she managed to stumble across it.

When we got to the bottom of one hill we hit an open field and as we rode across it Lucy was acting weird. I thought maybe she was bothered by the old dead weeds hitting her belly but then MIL yelled “she’s trying to lie down” at which time my crop swiftly made contact with her butt and we moved her feet! She only did that one more time before she decided it was better to just keep going.

We headed back up the hill (chanting again) and finally back to the barn. When we got to the trailer Lucy tried to walk in like “I’m done! Let’s go home!”. LOL

Last night was so good for her! MIL and I joked and said that a few more rides like that and she’d be begging me to do arena work instead. LOL

Here are a few pics of the tired pony from last night.





If the rain holds off tonight Abby will have her debut with the drill team.