No trail ride for me...

Gloomy skies

It was sunny at my apartment but had just stopped raining when I got to the barn this morning.  I even saw lightening on the drive, so I was pretty bummed out.  When I parked at the barn, I went ahead and checked the weather radar.  It looked like the barn was in a pocket between storms, and it was possible that it would stay that way but there was no way to be sure.  I decided to tack Ruby up and listen for thunder.  If there was no thunder or lightening during that time, I would ride around the neighborhood but the risk of having to bail out on my planned ride was too high to bother hooking up the trailer and hauling out. 

Ruby was being a bit of a prima donna about the wet and the mud.  This is her trying to keep her tootsies dry.

All tacked up, my girl is starting look like an endurance horse!  Hopefully we'll be able to trade in our 'wannabe' status for 'endurance team' next fall. 

She looks so spiffy in blue.

Chipmunk cheek in horse form:

Reminding me of a hamster

I did things a little differently this morning and mounted up right after leaving the property, instead of walking her for a bit first.  She was a little full of herself, and started striding out immediately.  We were booking - not one short stride on the pavement today, so our recent road rides may have made her feet a bit tougher.  Instead of turning left on the main road, we turned right.  There are more horses and a lot more activity on this side, but Ruby was handling it very well.  Until.  I will admit that I have gotten a bit complacent and so was completely unprepared when Ruby spooked. What did she spook at?  A little girl sitting on her own porch. But anyways, Ruby started scooting to the right, off the road, down into a shallow ditch.  I was pretty unconcerned and didn't take up the reins fast enough...When Ruby realized that nothing was stopping her, she decided to try to take off at a fast trot, straight away from the noise she spooked at.  Lesson learned.  She didn't get more than a stride in, but I now know that if I don't shut her down immediately, she will not choose to stick around after a spook.  All of the commotion actually caused the girl to give out a little shriek, which I'm sure validated Ruby's reaction in her own mind.  Anyway, now she was totally worked up.  Not bad but quickly turning into reacting freight train mode (hard to turn, hard to stop, FORWARD, FORWARD, FORWARD).  I asked her to turn around and cross the ditch again, which she did beautifully.  She did eventually see the little girl but did not make the connection to the noise that scared her.  We continued down the road until the next dead end street, which we have never explored.  Looking back now, it was probably a bad idea to ask her to turn down a completely new street when she was worked up, but I wanted to get off the main road in case there were any more shenanigans.  On the left side of this new road, there were two fenced yards with barking dogs, on the right side another dog came running out from his hiding spot.  Ruby is not afraid of dogs but all of the commotion was not helping her nerves.  We rode down to the end of this road, turned around and came back without incidence other than Ruby having ants in her pants.  At this point, I decided to head back to the barn - she was all for that plan.  We had two episodes of her trying to break into a trot on the way home.  This is what usually happens: I can feel Ruby just on the verge of trotting.  I usually say something along the lines of, "Don't do it." She wrestles internally with herself but generally her excitement wins out over her will power.  I ask nicely for her to come back to a walk (slight squeeze of my fingers, lean back a bit).  Sometimes she will ignore that, in which case I ask her to turn around and have her trot a forward, straight line in the opposite direction.  This usually cements my point for the next 20 yards or so and we have to do it again.  On our second episode, she actually tossed her head a bit and stomped her foot when I asked for that trot away from home.  Instead of laughing (the usual when she's being ridiculous), I yelled that she better not try that crap with me.  She considered for a second, let out a huge sigh, and when I asked I got a very nice trot.  We continued on and everything was roses until we got to our turn and she tried to pull towards it.  Instead, we walked by, turned around and walked back by, then took our turn.  I rode her past the barn gate before dismounting.  It was a short but very good - and thankfully dry - ride.