Monday wrap-up

I had Monday off, so Anne-Marie and I spent the day at the barn.

First we worked with Cheyenne. Anne rode her again and seemed to find a glimmer of brakes. I took a ton of videos - mainly showing her gaits (walk and trot away and back, and again from the side), and how she does under saddle (including the brake tests). She definitely paddles at the trot. Shit.

The videos are mainly for Leeandra's benefit. Anne wants her opinion on her confirmation and movement. Chey has a seriously wide chest, pigeon toes, cow hocks, and she holds her rear legs close together. Rather like an English bulldog if I really dwell on it, except without the underbite and skin folds. I've never seen anything like it in a horse, and if not for this it would be a lot easier for Anne to seriously consider this horse for herself. Poor girl.

She's started coming to the fence and staring after Anne if she's not paying attention to her. Now she knows how I feel with Peanut, and why, when we're going to get Cheyenne out and leave Peanut in his pasture, I stay where he can't see me.

She's also so ear-shy! I wonder if she was ear twitched? I got out the clicker and cookies and started working on pressure and release from pressure. I did one ear, Anne did the other, and by the time we finished with our respective ears she had gone from "no no bad touch!" to "whatever just give me a cookie."

We went for lunch and stopped at Bit of Britain. I was wearing my breeches and half chaps the whole time, feeling like a damn tool. Anyway, DVDs were the sale of the week at BoB, and I picked up a video on saddle fit for Rick. It's made by the same lass who wrote the saddle fit book that he thinks of as a bible. He loves the video, too. I'm glad.

We went back to the barn, pulled out Gene and Peanut, tacked them up and rode into Fair Hill. The streams were all frozen over so our options were very limited, so we just meandered around. The horses kept getting spooky, and at one point on the way back Gene was in the lead, stopped, and backed up next to us and then behind us. I asked him where he was going and went ahead. Neither of us could figure out what was getting them so upset in the Terror Woods, but there were some odd sounds coming out of them. Was it a dog? A deer? We couldn't decide. Maybe it was the Terror itself.

We untacked and as we were walking back up the driveway Peanut spooked and tried to bolt. I pulled him back in and turned around to face the Terror Woods. Coming out of them, nowhere near the trail but close to the Mason Dixon marker, was a guy in full camouflage accompanied by a dog that looked somewhat bloodhoundy. There's a wire fence of sorts at the road, and he tripped his way over it and started walking down the road.

His presence explained a lot. When I told him later, Rick said he would have been spooked too and he didn't blame the horses one bit.

So, it was my first ride in breeches! VERY comfy. Since they're lined in fleece, it felt like riding in snug sweatpants which, of course, is nice. I didn't feel any more secure, but they aren't full seat and we didn't do anything more than a walk. I stayed warm, could feel every detail of the saddle under my thighs (which was a surprising revelation), and felt like a tool.