A New Years Ride

After all the snow, but with the expectation of more to come, my only opportunity to ride over the Christmas holidays when there was no snow and I had no children was the afternoon of New Years Eve.  Nevertheless, I was determined to go and it still left plenty of time to go home and get dressed up for a night in the pub on New Years Eve. 

That said with all the snow, I have been quite relieved that Sam is back at Trevelog as it meant I was spared a half an hour journey through the snow and ice every day to muck out and feed him which I would have needed to do if he had still been in Cardiff.  I now have the luxury of a horse I can ride whenever I want with none of the day to day chores.  I do, of course, groom him before I tack him up and again when I get in before I put his rug back on and put him back out in the field.  I am also reliant on finding someone to ride with, as not only do I not feel sufficiently experienced to ride out alone but Sam is not a fan of going out on his own, as being a trekking horse he is used to travelling with the "herd".  He does not like to be the lead horse either.

I actually retreived Sam from the field myself this time which was an experience.  The mud (and horse poo) was like sinking mud and I found the mud creeping over the top of my wellies and was in grave danger of falling flat on my face as I tried to catch Sam.  He wasn't running anywhere fast but was reluctant to leave the nice big pile of hay that he was eating.  Unfortunately, I think I made myself a little unpopular because whilst I remember to shut the gate, I didnt actually tie it shut properly and a few of the horses escaped.  I don't think they went too far but I believe someone had to go round them up on the quad to get them back. 

My winter rides have been shorter in distance than when I go pony trekking in the summer.  Typically, we seem to end up going a bit slower as the horses are less confident in small groups and are not as fit as in the summer when they are working regularly.  New Years Eve, we went down the lane to the bridle path back onto the road past the pub and up to the forestry where we did a small loop before going back down, through the river, to clean the mud off the horses a bit and then back along the lane to the farm. 

I am still struggling a bit with the basics though.  I know I have to keep my heels down and my hands down but when things don't go right, I tend to forget and then I seem to do the opposite.  Particularly true, when I am trying to get Sam to do something he doesn't want to do and he starts resisting and trying to turn around and go backwards if I try and get him to lead, for example, or on a few occasions, where I am convinced he is about to try and buck me again.  I am getting better at mounting unaided without someone holding the stirrup on the other side, but as I was reminded the other day, I should be able to mount without a girth on the saddle, in theory so tightening the girth tighter so it doesn't slip is not really the answer.  I am hoping my diet and some weight loss may help with this bit.

The weather is still cold but surprisingly, it never seems as bad as expected when I actually get out although I do tend to wear thermals and a couple of fleecies at least.  As well as New Year, I also managed another ride yesterday and the sun even came out to shine for a while which was lovely.  We had a lovely ride, but took an awfully long time to cover the distance and didn't go quite as far as originally planned because the horses decided they wanted to turn back before we got up the mountain.  Nevertheless, we had a nice little ride down the bridle path and the lanes and managed to get them through the river even if we didnt make it as far as the road on the top of the opposite bank.

Apologies for not including any photos but keep forgetting my camera.  Apologies to those blogs, I normally visit, I have not been reading much either as have been so hectic with xmas, new year and now the first week of school and job hunting.