A Race Against The Sun

Yesterday I raced home to try to beat the freezing drizzle that was on its way so I could get in a quick ride. By the time I got out to the barn the overcast had already set in and my daylight was quickly escaping. I decided if I wanted to get any riding in I would have to hurry up so I pulled Black out and put her bridle on. I decided to skip booting her because that was going to take too much time. I figured if she got sore I could jump off and hand walk her home. I grabbed my crop in anticipation of some resistance and off we went.

I LOVE riding her bareback. I just melt into her back and it is so comfortable (at least for me anyways). Before we even got to the edge of the second driveway she was starting to show some resistance so I quickly introduced her to Ms. Crop. She decided going on a little further was a better option. We ended up making it to the neighbor’s house without any resistance when a car decided to come down the road. I decided to stop her and let her turn and face the car so she knew it was coming. After the car drove by I asked her to go back our original direction and she put her foot down (pun intended).

She likes to turn quickly (usually to the left) and try to run (trot quickly with her head up in the air) sideways when she wants out of work. If that doesn’t work then she backs up. She’s usually pretty close to the ditch and so if you are afraid of her falling you back off of the pressure and she wins. Well I didn’t back off. Her back foot slipped off into the ditch and she stepped out of it. I had anticipated that it would take her by surprise more then it did but it didn’t and when I didn’t release the pressure she backed up more and ended up being completely in the ditch. We weren’t in a shallow ditch either.

I had to grab her mane ½ way up her neck just to stay on. I think it took her a minute to realize what had happened and to get her composure. By then I had tapped her with my legs to encourage her to get out of the ditch. As soon as she was out I pointed her in the original direction we had been traveling and backed up my request with another visit from Ms. Crop. We didn’t seem to have any issues after that. We trotted from the one neighbor’s to the others and then when we hit the stop sign we turned around. Since she wants to “run” back home I made her walk a ways before letting her move up into a trot.

When we got back to the house we (I) decided to go on past it to the other neighbors. I could see where her stopping point with DH had been on Sunday and as she started to hesitate she was reminded of her recent visits by Ms. Crop and decided to move on. I baited her a little by letting her turn left to go home and then changing my mind suddenly. She did very well. Once we made it to the neighbors I hopped off and walked her home.

I drove it and we rode 1.6 miles with NO BOOTS! She seems to be improving daily!