Warm Weather and Riding

The weather was back to its seasonal norm today-4C (+24F), something that we haven't seen for several weeks. It was a great day for tossing a saddle on Biz and working some of the fat and laziness off. I figured that she would be herd bound with the other two, so I spent about 20 minutes lunging her in the paddock, then another 10 making sure she was compliant. For the first 10 minutes of the ride, she kept wanting to go back to her herd, but with some circling she soon straightened out. Actually she was pretty well behaved, but with lots of energy. A half mile of cantering up the road and then a half mile back through the snow drifts settled her right down. I asked Elaine to take the photo as I realized that I had lots of pictures of Biz, but none with me on her.

I then returned to the field and spent some time working on her halts, turns on the hindquarter and attempting a side pass. I have got to get the side pass down before the spring cattle drive! Tucker was a cutting horse and she knows automatically how to get out of the way, and how to prevent cows from circling back. Actually, I am just along for the ride with her! My goal is to get Biz up to that point.

A good day, warm temps, and a well behaved horse (sort of) . What more could a guy ask for?
Oh yeah, I kept the horse between me and the ground.