Today I took my girl out for our first hack. The weather was lovely, could have been warmer (of course... dratted winter...) but all in all the sun was shining, the footing was not icy, and there was no real breeze blowing at all. I haven't seen her since before the holidays so I was most excited to get out and ride. Sadly, in all the excitement, I didn't grab the camera out. Maybe next time!
I bring her out and thank goodness, she has grown a thicker winter coat. Before she looked like a gal who just barely had any type of fuzz going on which had me rather worried since we get down to -40 for weeks at a time up here. Barely there winter coat has now turned into woolly winter coat which is great! Of course I'll have to take extra care cooling her out, but other wise I'm a happy camper.
The ride was a good time, she was rather up and wasn't happy about having to walk, but after getting some nice trots in she settled down. What I've found with Celtic is that she likes to cheat a bit when she trots, running on her forehand and getting into almost a daisy cutter trot. What we're working on is steady trots, plenty of half halts and using my body from me, and tracking up and using the hindquarters from her. We covered about 6 km today which I think was a bit much, but she just wanted to go, Go, GO! On the coolout home she had a great free walk going with a great swing through her back, on the buckle, not raring to trot or go faster home which made the ride even sweeter :)
Our next ride we'll be going out with a friend of mine and her younger boy. It'll mostly be walking which is great since we can work on walking at the BEGINNING of our ride and end of it.
How're the winter rides going for you guys?
My little trick for keeping warm - hand warmers in the toe of your boots and a good neck warmer.
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