Riding the diva

The frost is pretty much gone out of the ground here except in the shaded areas, like in front of the foaling shelter. When I had the pens scraped the other day he couldn't get all the frozen poo from there so yesterday I got busy and raked and shovelled 4 wheel barrows full. As I was working (who needs a gym membership when there is poo to shovel?) I was listening to the birds of spring.... robins and other song birds, crows, a woodpecker hammering away... and then I looked up as a bald eagle passed overhead low enough that I could hear the whoosh of his wing beats. Magic moment!

I spent time grooming all the mares and then I saddled up for my afternoon ride. Took Tay with me and off we went.

As we neared the end of the trail, I could see other riders and horses with a dog approaching, and not knowing if Tay was going to be aggressive to the other dog I turned back and rode ahead of them. Tay was actually good when their dog came up to greet her.  At one point the other riders, who were about 100 yards behind us, took a different route. Up to then Gussie was perfect, just kept an ear on them, but when they turned off she got all anxious, started to sweat and went into her nervous little jog. She gets all up on her tippy toes and frames up beautifully- but it would be nice if I was actually asking for that! I am happy that she didn't lose her forward like Rosalee can do, and I took all that coiled up energy and put it to work with two tracking across the trail and back, and some circles where the trail permitted. When we got back to the turn off to the barn, I dismounted and watched as the riders went by, and Gussie finally relaxed. I was about to get back on, but when I saw where the saddle had slipped back to I just walked her back to the barn.

I remember when this saddle was too small for her big shoulders, but now it is slipping down and back on her. In the next photo you will see where my hand is - it is where the shoulder blade ends and where I set the bars on the saddle to sit just behind that spot.

I always check for the end of the shoulder blade in relation to where the front of the bars are before I cinch up my saddle. I don't want the bars sitting directly on the shoulder blade. Anyway- this saddle is obviously too wide for her at the moment. I am going to try my Wade saddle on her next and see how it works out for her. And- hopefully as I get her back in shape I will be able to go back to using this saddle, it is my favourite!
Once she had cooled off, and I had taken her into the barn for her extra feed, Thumper came to visit. He is such a snuggly cat, all over me while I am sitting down anywhere in the barn. So- I set him up on Gussie, and he stayed. Surprisingly, Gussie didn't mind - other than one "what the heck" look back at him she just went back to eating.

I changed out the mecarte reins for a nice set of reins that Shayla gave me for Christmas- they will work much better for ponying Mesa!

Riding day 14