Saturday's Ride

I did not have a lot of time to ride on Saturday, but because I knew I would have even less time to ride this upcoming weekend, I rushed out to the barn in between loads of laundry.  On the drive there, I seriously contemplated just hopping on bareback, but when I got the farm and noticed the crisp breeze and the sound of deer running through the woods, I thought that a saddle would be a good idea.

While I was tacking up, all three of Nicole's dogs were playing in the barn, but when I walked down to the ring, only one followed me.  I was grateful for the company on the otherwise quiet farm, and even more grateful when Aztec noticed the deer and bounded after them, scaring them back into the woods and away from the sides of the arena.

Gali and I had a bit of a discussion about the mounting block, and when I asked him to walk away he broke into a jog.  I expected it to be one of those rides where I fight with him and he focuses solely on the deer and rustling leaves, but my pony surprised me.

As long as he was working, he was focusing on me and kept a very even tempo at both the trot and the canter.  He did have a lot of energy starting off, and so I used a modified version of an exercise that I've learned from a few different people.

After our warm up of big figure eights and twenty meter circles, I began to trot fifteen meter circles at each letter.  After two letters, I'd make a short diagonal line and do two circles in the other direction at the last two letters.  I'd do a larger circle at A or C, regroup, and go back up the longside in the same way.  After a bit of fighting about exactly what outside aids mean, Gali got too distracted by his own thoughts to argue, and we ended up doing the exercise at the canter, with simple changes on the diagonal.  The changes got him very excited, but the circles stayed at the size I wanted.  One bad habit Gali has is counter bending on the short sides of the arena (especially after a difficult exercise), and breaking when I ask for a true bend, and it was no surprise when he started off that way.  It was, however, a surprise when he did not resisit at all my encouragement, and we ended up getting lovely true bend in both short sides in both directions.

At the end of the ride (which was the most productive 20 minute ride I've had in a while), I let Gali out for a bit of a victory hand gallop.  The air was cool enough that he didn't sweat much, but after a quick hosing I put him out to roll and eat, just as the sun was setting.

There are plenty of days that remind me that I was overhorsed when I bought Gali, and plenty of moments when I ask myself what I seriously saw in the big, bolting, spooky, green twelve year old rescue - but for every few of those, there are rides like Saturday, and they wipe the slate clean and remind me exactly why I chose this horse.