Riding over Christmas

We are one third of the way through winter! It hasn’t been bad at all. I can’t remember a December that I got to do so much trail riding. Every year, I want to trail ride for the Christmas holiday, and most years I end up in the indoor arena. This year was a huge exception.

I had to work Christmas Eve, but they let me out early. I went home, took care of the dog and cat and scurried out to the barn. I had just enough daylight to go dashing down the trail with Cole Train. And dash we did. It has been a while wince I have taken him out on a ride by himself, and I think that got him a little wound up—we just flew… It was about 60 degrees, so he got sweaty and we had to walk all the way home. Still, since he went so fast on the way out, we had no trouble getting back by dark.

It rained that night, so the river was too high to cross on Christmas. Ellen and I worked with Dante on the hill. He was a little bit excited, but Ellen managed him well. Cole was perfect.

The river was still a little high the next day. Ellen had to go to work, so I helped her out with Dante in the arena and out on the loop that is on the barn property. She went to work, and I took Cole out for a trail ride with Kevin on Starry. We did a lot of trotting and some cantering. It was fun.

The following day, we took Cole and Dante on an hour and a half ride and a great time was had by all. Once again, we did a lot of trotting and a bit of cantering. On the way home, we found Kevin with Starry and they joined us

Amazingly, we were able to get on the trail on Sunday, too, but since it rained the night before, the river was too high, again. Ellen and I worked them on the hill. For the first time ever, Dante was perfect for all 3 trips on the hill and the trotting back and forth at the bottom. It was a great way to end a long weekend of riding.

The weather has been so mild that the river hasn’t had a bit of ice on it. That will be changing this week as the weather is cooling off to normal. We are just grateful that we had the trail rides we did. It will make the whole winter seem shorter—since the first third was so wonderful.