Queen of the Trot Poles

Despite the beautiful and unseasonable weather on Saturday (63 and sunny, what what?), I didn’t get to take advantage of that by riding outside… still too mucky. Unless of course you count the combined five minutes I spent bareback on Cinna and then Ruby trying to photograph the embroidery on the back of my If the Bonnet Fits custom bonnet… haha. 

Cinna was only marginally cooperative.

My arena at home would probably have been fine to ride in by the afternoon if I could have dragged it in the morning – but unfortunately I can’t be trusted driving the tractor unsupervised (starting it is kind of complicated). It wasn’t too bad for my attempted photoshoot of Otto and Cin, just a little squishy. After I got the photos I wanted of the bridle, I tried to get some of the embroidered ears on the bonnet. 

When standing on the mounting block precariously leaning over her back with an expensive DSLR wasn’t getting the shots I wanted, I made a poor life decision. I climbed on bareback (sans expensive camera, because apparently I am more careful with my camera than my life?). Yes, bareback, on a very green horse who hadn’t been worked in two months. While no one was home. When it was unseasonably warm and sunny in January. Do it for the ‘gram guys. After getting a couple of mediocre cell phone shots while she wandered around the arena, I decided that was probably enough potential danger for one day. And luckily, one of the shots from my camera turned out okay (see above), so it was a win-win situation. 

Such a good baby horse.

I had half-heartedly hoped it would dry out enough to take Ruby out on the trails or in the field when I got to the barn that afternoon, but alas, still standing water and muckity muck everywhere. So I consoled myself with a few more shots of the bonnet. 

On Sunday DH came out to the barn with me, so I decided it was a great time to set some poles and let Ruby stretch her legs. Since she’s not super fit, I tailored the workout accordingly. We did W/T/C both directions, both with and without the side reins loosely attached (on the longest hole), and only went over the poles about every 3rd or 4th circle with lots of walk breaks. 

Yes, I look like a hobo, #sorrynotsorry

 

I intentionally set the poles a little wide so she’d have to work a bit to make it over them at the trot. I don’t utilize poles nearly as often as I should (mostly because I’m too lazy to get them out and set them up and then put them back), but I really enjoyed watching Ruby work through the exercise both mentally and physically. And hot damn did DH get some really amazing shots! 

 

 

 

The rest of our Sunday was spent playing with his new drone (I’m using the term ‘our’ loosely, obviously). I did step in to help him edit some of the videos, because the software that came with the drone was pretty complicated and DH is not what you’d call super tech savvy. Unfortunately it’s not super visually appealing because in the dead of winter, everything looks sort of gross. But hopefully as he gets more confident at the controls (and the horses get used to it), he should be able to get some fun footage of me riding!

Like a big kid on Christmas :)

Getting the horses used to the drone.

Sorry about the music in the video (was sample music from the computer), but this was his very first flight!