First Ride

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!!

Dr. O came today in the afternoon and rechecked Lily: she found her bruised foot to be 85% better (that was the number she gave), and cleared us for riding! She said only 1 more week of the Simple Boots for turnout and riding, which will end just in time for the trimmer appointment. She was thrilled with Lily's improvement: no more bounding pulses on her right front, and she was very happy with how well the bruises have healed up (yay me!). Lily even walked completely and 100% comfortably on the concrete, barefoot, for the doctor, too.

After the recheck, I put Lily's boots on and then took her for the long walk I'd been itching to give her from the get-go! I took her down to the outdoor arena, where in one of the corners they have a couple of trail class-type obstacles, and eventually convinced her to walk over the "bridge". We then walked over ground poles, then I took her for a 5 minute walk down the trail, only up to the point where the barn falls out of sight. Then we returned and I took her to the square pen, and set her loose to see what she'd do. I clucked to get her to trot, and she went a couple of times around in each direction, tossing her head, but no bucks or wild galloping around. She seemed "up" and relaxed at the same time, a new kind of mental state in her that I hadn't really seen before. Heather, another boarder, who owns Nate, Lily's handsome neighbor, a bay TB-type gelding, came over with her husband to introduce us and show him Lily. Heather and her hubs are triathletes-they are incredibly fit. Heather reminds me of Ines in the way she works with Nate: lots of magical groundwork, and that special quality of horse & owner relationship that borders on telepathy.

Afterwards, I took Lily over to the indoor and walked her around. During all of this time, I had been debating whether I dared ride my mare after 3 weeks of no riding, with no prior lunging on top of that, during one of the coldest days of the season so far (we had snow flurries in the forecast for both DC and MD that night!) The stable hands had a giant flatbed trailer in the indoor stacked with hay, that they began to unload with a forklift, and then proceeded to move the hay over to the loft above the stalls at the far end of the arena. Lily seemed only slightly bothered by the noise and machinery, so I took this as an opportunity to do groundwork with her. Ironically, her main distraction was Nate, whom Heather had just led past the indoor on their way to the outdoor arena. I was having a hard time getting her attention back after that, so, remembering one of Hempfling's tips, while holding Lily at the end of the lead rope, I gave a big hop straight up in the air. This startled Lily so much that she took off at a gallop in a circle around me, throwing in a buck. After the one circle, she immediately came to a stop in front of me, "Mom! What was that?!". I laughed at her, but right away she became distracted by the horses outside again. I gave another hop. She threw her head back, then took a step towards me, looking bewildered. After that, I had no problem keeping her attention. We did shoulder in, side pass, trot from a standstill-halt-back up until Lily started anticipating the backing up, then did a review of personal space, since, after having been spoiled for a week prior to our arrival in DC, Lily had stopped respecting that bubble of space around people. We then did several step & twirl repetitions, where she remained absolutely calm throughout. I was very happy with her.

Dr. O and BQ were both at the wash stall next to the indoor, observing Dr. S rechecking Murmur, the mare with the eye ulcer and soft tissue injuries on one of her front legs. I led Lily over to ask Dr. O if she thought it was okay to ride Lily today. She said it was fine, as long as it was in the arena.

So I tacked up. I took Lily over to the indoor and mounted up. She nuzzled my left foot for a minute, "Oh, it's you." then promptly stepped forward when I asked her to walk. She was a little skittish starting out, despite BQ being in the arena at this point hand-walking her horse Cody. At this point, Alex, the head stable hand, showed up with one of the tractors to water the arena. I dismounted and both BQ and I led our horses out so he could do his job-the indoor was indeed VERY dusty. Afterwards, I got back on, but had a brainfart: I didn't think they'd be back, but Alex returned with the drag. Initially he said that he could go grain the horses and return so I wouldn't have to dismount again, but I told him it was okay-this way he could just finish up since he'd already gone and brought the drag over. Plus the footing would be so much better after!

So I dismounted a second time and waited with Lily outside while Alex finished the arena. It was perfect after that, and after my 3rd time getting on, Lily didn't care anymore: she felt just like she used to back in FL.

We had a very, very good ride. We did a long warm-up at the walk, simply because she was offering a long, swinging gait, then we did some shoulder-in in both directions, 20m circles, some travers, and turns on the haunches. Not a lot, just enough to see how she was doing and finish warming her up. I could see both of our breaths' vapor in the quiet air of the indoor. I had missed that-in South FL, even when it gets cold, you very very rarely see the vapor of your breath. Now, in Tampa it was a different story: during my 6:00am rides in the winter before work, I'd exercise the horses in the big jump field and watch their breath steam in the air like the smoke from a locomotive.

When I asked Lily to trot, she stepped forward comfortably. I gotta say I have rapidly fallen in love with those Simple Boots! Not only was Lily comfortable, but as she warmed up and relaxed more (she was a little iffy about the sounds of the horses in the 2 corner stalls adjacent to the arena crunching their grain, and she was a little leery of the small mirror to the left of the indoor gate to the outside), she arched her neck on a loose rein and extended happily. We had a great workout. I even had her canter a half circle in each direction, just to see how she felt, and to get any bucks out. She put her head down once, but did not offer to buck. However, she did invert at the canter-I think her foot is not yet recovered enough to be cantering. So we will wait for the Eponas before we do any more canter work. Even so, after the little bit of canter, she still was willing to zoom around at her medium trot, and stretch down at the walk during our breaks. I gave her a lot of walk breaks on a loose rein, and felt her back REALLY come UP and swing towards the end. Very, very nice! The last remaining rider, a middle-aged woman I'd just met, stopped by to watch before heading out, and complimented Lily's movement. I stopped to talk to her, and discovered she is a pediatrician! So I told her about Charles and she gave me the names of all of the good hospitals in the area, but confirmed that Georgetown is definetely one of the best here.

It was a truly awesome day, and a terrific first ride at our new barn!