first ride

I went out to see the pretty girl the next day, Friday. The turnout situation at our barn is thusly: she is the only mare and there are 8 geldings, so we decided it would be in everyone's best interest to put her out separately from the boys. However, they only use one pasture at a time and rotate out the rest. So, after the boys go out to the pasture, she'll be put out on the separately-fenced mud lot that leads to the pasture. The only catch is that the boys can't go out on the pasture when it's been raining hard, so they then get the mud lot and she stays in. Not a bad situation at all compared to other barns in the area, and she doesn't mind being in. So, since it had poured Weds and Thurs the pasture was closed Friday. BO had very kindly put her in the indoor arena for a bit, and said she'd had a nice trot around that morning.

Since she'd already been turned out in the indoor a couple times and hadn't even seen the outdoor yet, I decided to work her in there. We started out with a walk on a nice loose rein. She is quite a forward horse under saddle and wanted to go-go-go as soon as we set out. Considering the weather and the fact that she'd been on a trailer 8 hours the day before, I wanted her to take a good long warmup before we started working, so we made lots of nice big circles and changes of direction until we could walk calmly on a longish rein--about 15 minutes. We started out trot work to the left, her better side. We started out awfully rushy, I hadn't ridden since school ended (late May) and I'd forgotten she can be a big mover when she wants to be. We did lots more circles to work on our rhythm. The trick is not to make the circles too small, or she will fall to the inside and get quick, but to keep them small enough that she has to keep thinking rather than just rushing.

Since I'm so incredibly out of shape, we took more walk breaks than I'd have liked, and each time we started back up again we'd have to find our easy rhythm again. Trotting right was uneventful, and we had just turned back left and were getting ready to canter when her head started to creep into my lap. I figured she was just making things up until I realized that the boys were being brought in for dinner. Every time the BO would go into the paddock to get one her head would shoot up and she'd want to stop and spin in circles. So, we abandoned our canter plans and just focused on staying nice and straight and not letting our brains leak out our ears. Once we got a good lap of trot either direction we called it a day. The boys were all in by the time we started cooling down, so we just took 10-15 minutes to walk around on the buckle. I did some stretchy arm/leg thingies while we walked, and took pictures of the pretty princess, of course.

Then hopped down

Untacked

Gave her a quick shower

And gave her lots of kisses and put her home. Not a "perfect" ride, but we worked through what we needed to work through. To work on for next time: really working to slow her trot with my post (hard since I've lost all my strength since I last rode).

Pearl's journey home

Pearl is a 19-year-old Trakehner mare that I have, through some ridiculously fortunate set of circumstances, been lucky enough to bring home on lease for the summer. All the history I know: She came to the barn at school last summer--July or August I guess-- and has been used for lessons this year. Before that, she used to either event or do the jumpers...maybe both. She's had a couple babies, the last one being two years previous, I believe. Aside from being absolutely the most gorgeous horse I've ever seen, she is smart, kind, athletic, and has probably forgotten more than I'll ever know.

Of course we had to stop by the barn on our way in Wednesday night


We got to the barn around 5 (home time)


Got her all suited up


She hopped in the trailer without hesitation


And then we were off


She was calm and quiet the whole way and not even impatient at rest stops


We were lucky weather-wise because we passed through a nice rainstorm before it got a chance to get too hot. Then when we got near the barn, it cleared right up


We unloaded


And gave her a chance to stretch her legs

And then put her in her new house so she could eat.


She loves her gate


And her window


And she was totally chill about drinking the new water. After she had a rest, I gave her a sponge bath


And then we went out for grass.