So last lesson it was before  EVIL that is daylight savings time. So it was darkish but not dark if you know what I’m saying? This week’s lesson was  DARK. DARK, DARK,  DARK, DARK, DARK! I hate this time of year so much. We have an indoor, but don’t use it until we absolutely need to so we were outside under the lights. In the dark and miserable work that is winter. I mean, it was fine and not that cold, but it was  DARK.

Last lesson we worked on bending lines. This week was roll backs. I forgot that I like rollbacks? I mean, I  haven’t actually done roll backs consistently (at the canter) since, well, Subi. And they weren’t our forte. Though we always did really well at the circle of death so maybe we did do well? I actually can’t remember. It’s been too long.

So, in my course drawings last week, I forgot a jump. Rather than try to update that one, I attempted to redo it. It’s still not to scale, but I used paint rather than a sharpie. So, ???

It’s definitely not as special as last week’s art, that’s for sure… But, tough. We started off by cantering in to jump 1 and in the air, opening up my left hand and turning my head to look at jump which yes, was a nice tight turn. We did get the turn, but a certain pinto pony was NOT helping me and landed wrong EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. no matter what  I did. Thank you Ranger. We repeated this a few times just to try and  get the lead and to make sure once I was over the jump, I was steering with 2 hands.

Just breaking text up with pictures

From here, we added on jump 3 and  4. 3 was the straw bales and  4 was the out of the outside line. 3 was fine the first time as and  continued to be OK as long as I went into my corner and the out was decent every time even if I screwed up everything else. I’m realizing I have no issue riding out of problems because, again, I have a weirdly accurate eye. We ended up

Next we added in 5, our brownstone plank jump to our outside single. Again, Ranger is perfect, I saw my distance, it worked. It was easy.

We did end up cantering down to 2 as a single, around to the straw (3), and continuing to 4 because I screwed up my corner and distance to the straw once and the roll back was getting  hard because of the lack of lead, but, that’s a different issue. Jump 4 was lovely even when I screwed up 3. I’m noticing that my 2 point is getting really strong and I’m not grabbing mane half the time (not that I’ve needed to, but habit) because I REALLY  don’t need to? I feeling really tight and secure? I mean, the jumps have be lovely, but now they’re really nice? Pony is perfect.

We ended with an easy outside line. I just sat there and didn’t know what to do. I’m loving the courses. The easy lines are terribly boring now! But, either way, I love this horse!

As always, we ended we with lots of carrots and peppermints before I sent him out to field where Forest and Elliot where waiting anxiously for him… Seriously, the three of them need to get over themselves…

As nice as it was Friday, it was miserable on Friday/Saturday. Windy and FREEZING. Which is why Saturday I had to lead a trail ride at 10am… At 6:30am it was 19*. Wind chill of 11…

So Batty and I headed out to Marsh Creek at 8am in the arctic temperatures and made it there when it was till below freezing. While the sun was out, it didn’t help too much. But, thanks to Mountain Horse Stella Polaris winter boots, 2 pairs of riding pants (I don’t know where my winter riding pants are…), wool socks, base layer shirt, super warm Noble Outfitters cowl fleece thing (I need to review this), down vest, and a down coat, I was pretty warm. Plus, I threw on Subi’s old quarter sheet which was a touch too small, but whatever. We were warm, though for some reason I forgot to put on gloves because I’m an idiot.  Also, it was NOT 30 degrees at 10 am… And the wind chills…

Regardless Batty was perfect. Because he just is. Even though I barely managed to get his feet clean enough for his boots… But, whatever.

Hopefully paper chase next weekend!