Braving the Cold

Well I decided today was the perfect opportunity to get a play time in with the horses. It has been unbearably cold here for the past week (in the teens and twenties) with a wind chill of 5 degrees. Today the wind wasn't moving much, the sun was out, and it was 30 degrees. Out I went with my long underwear, heavy jacket, gloves, and thermal socks. I managed to play with all three of them, and in general things went really well.
Woody was up first, and he haltered no problem. I brought him to the tack room and put the bareback pad on him, then grabbed my helmet and the sidepull and placed them outside the gate, just in case I decided to ride. I took him outside, and right away he began to try to eat grass. However, it only took a couple reminders for him to let go of that thought. We went on the do some directing and driving from zone 3/4, and he did really well with this. His upward transitions were a little lazy, and it took a couple of "Hello! I'm here!"'s the get them going snappier. We played around a lot with walk to trot transitions from me in zone 4 which went really nicely. I then gave him a couple of tasks to do, such as put his side against the trailer, weave in and out of the pine trees, and put his nose on the cone. He did all these well, so I decided to put the side pull on him. I had to spend a little time with this because everytime I'd go to start putting it on, he would start rubbing his head really hard, or he would drop it and try to eat. I stayed focused and patient, and brought him back to position each time, and eventually I slid it over his ears and on his head no problem. He blew out big, and I knew that had been good for him. I put my helmet on, tightened the cinch, and started heading toward the mounting black in zone 3, driving him and directing him. We had a lot of fun with this, and worked on this for quite a while. I would ask him to circle around things and really bring his thought around the bend, then ask him to trot, walk, stop, backup, weave, etc.. I had to work through a couple of rough patches where he tried to push his way somewhere or where he would try to dive for grass, but in the end he was really with me and it was really fun. Turned out I didn't get on him at all. The driving and directing him was fun enough.
I played with Teddy next. I haltered him pretty easily, put the horses on the other side of the overhang and put the gate up, and began playing lots of Friendly with him. I played with the lunge whip, the carrot stick and bag, and the bull whip. I rubbed him all over, let him smell them, chew on them, everything. He was licking and chewing a LOT (much more than usual) and I decided to take him out in the pasture to play some. We played some driving zone 3 stuff at a walk and stop, played with the log (asked him to go over it, stood on it and rubbed him, put a leg over his back, etc.), and played with some circles. I didn't bring the flag out with me to play, just the rope. He really did nicely and licked and chewed and sighed a lot. I think the key to him is to go slow. Sometimes he looks like he is ready to move on quickly, but he gets a lot of confidence when you really take your time. We ended the session by walking back to the barn and he followed me back, at liberty, which he never does. Good stuff!
I then haltered Charlotte after waiting on her to accept it a bit, and saddled her up. I really took my time and assessed her as I went along to make sure I wasn't rushing her. I put the bridle on her fine, then headed out the gate to the mounting block. The whole way she was energized and wanting to trot and really feelin' good! I guess it was because she hasn't been out of the pasture for a loooong while. I hopped on and off we went. We had a really casual ride, walking on the driveway, in the yard, anywhere that wasn't icy. I also practiced getting a soft feel and contact with her, and then letting her go and riding on the buckle. She did really well, and she was quick to get that soft feel (I didn't have to wait for her to search for it much). It was a nice ride, and much needed for both of us. I returned her to the pasture, and I threw out hay, and returned to the house! It was a fun day, and I enjoyed working with the horses again.
~Eden