Ring of Fire

This week hasn't been the best, haven't been able to make it out to see my boy for one thing or another (Shilo getting neutered, it was rain/sleeting, recovering from the flu) and I finally decided by hell or high water, I'm going for a ride.  I was SO glad I made that decision since it was a fantastic ride!  A little on the nervous/exciting side, and just all around good. 

After a ride in July

It was the first time in a while that we've hacked out by ourselves, so I was happy to see that he was no longer calling for the other horses like he used to.  He just marched out, perhaps more on the alert than usual, but hacked out without a peep about the other horses and was looking at where we were headed.  I wanted to keep the ride low key, so walked for a solid 10 minutes then hit one of our harrowed fields with some of the best footing around.  Went out and did a quick canter with the leaves crunching under Koda's hooves as we flew along the edge of the field with the setting sun on our right side.  It was absolutely fabulous. 

At our first outing off the farm, August.

Autumn is my favourite season, the scents, the colours, the feeling of that snap in the air, it's great!  Experiencing those while cantering along the edge of a field at sunset?  Even better.  Please note, I do wear hunter orange when I go out and am going to get Koda a bright coloured ear bonnet.  The hunters out here are fairly good about really viewing what they shoot, but when you ride a horse that already looks a lot like a moose, every precaution is a good one.

First bank at the South Peace Clinic, September

Either way, we did some walk-trot transitions along with staying straight.  All I have to do is think "right" and BAM we have leg-yield off the right leg, whereas to the left it's a bit of a battle.  I think it's a mix of him being less flexible to the left and me not being as coordinated with my aids to the left, let alone being stronger on the right than left.  We finished off our ride with a short right-lead canter (short since someone was getting strong and excited since we were heading in the direction of home).  As we cooled out and walked home I was getting a touch anxious, not sure why, but instead of getting all tight and bothered I just started to sing that Johnny Cash classic Ring of Fire.  Slightly appropriate since we were riding home and the sun looked like a ring of fire on the horizon!  It really helped relax myself and bring Koda back down from being keyed up after our work.  Kind of cheesy and hilarious and perfect riding home along the road, sun setting ahead of us with our own soundtrack.

Sigh, why is autumn so short out here?