Rode on Thursday

Rode for hopefully 38 minutes on Thursday. The watch I'm using for my stopwatch stopped somewhere after 26 minutes, so I rode for 6 minutes after I noticed the watch had stopped, so it was somewhere around that timeframe. I'll shoot to ride for 40 minutes the next time I ride.

The snow on the ground made for a big workout for Arabee. I'd planned to ride the same route on the road I had the last time, except turn off and ride the perimeter of one field to minimize how much snow she'd have to walk in. However, all afternoon and including when I'd wanted to ride coyote hunters had been driving up and down the road way too much for it to be a good idea to ride on the road that afternoon. So I rode in the pasture just South of our house.

The snow was about 4" deep in most places, but there had been a lot of drifting so it was much deeper in some areas, less in others. Underneath that snow was some pretty deep mud - so she had quite a workout just walking. I stopped frequently to let her catch her breath, but other than that we just walked since the footing was so deep.

I'm still having trouble getting my halter/hackamore set up just how I like it. I started with the reins on the hackamore, but the knotted noseband of the halter got under the hack noseband, and that brought out significant protest from Arabee....can't blame her! So I switched the reins to the halter which she did well with. I've adjusted the halter again so hopefully the nosebands won't get in each other's way next time.