I rode today!

I rode Arabee again today! I went out to catch her, and she refused to be caught! So, I went back to the garage and put on my tall rubber chore boots (due to the ankle deep mud in places) and set about chasing her around the paddock until she showed signs of being willing to stop and let me catch her. Finally she lowered her head, and licked her lips, and I haltered her. Saddled up after scratching as much of the mud off of her as I could, picked her feet, and did the regular mini-longe session at the end of the rein - walk, whoa, walk, trot, walk, whoa practice in both directions. This gives me an idea of how attentive she is, allows me to tighten her girth enough after she quits bloating, and refreshes her voice cues.

I had terribly overestimated how long my stirrups needed to be - it's a miracle I was even able to get my off leg over her back, so I got off and adjusted them. They were still too long, but I left them as they were. All we did was walk, whoa, and turn, and thankfully we didn't do any spooking practicing, so the long stirrups were fine.

She did a fine job of halting to my body cues. Not such a fine job of turning with my legs, but that's never been one of our finest movements. It was very very low key, but a good beginning to starting riding again!