friday foto finish

Happy Friday, y’all!! Idk about you, but I’m really looking forward to a pleasantly quiet and peaceful weekend! Hopefully to be filled with lots of quality barn time, natch. 

Ms Mondeuse

Especially bc Doozy continues to feel great under saddle! Is it the half pad making her happy? Or just the little bit of extra time? Who knows lol — I’m happy when she’s happy, so we’ll take it!

struttin’

Even better, a barn mate joined us in the ring for one of our little ‘micro rides’ and snapped some video <3 including, yay our first canter in a couple weeks!!

eeeee we cantered!

And Doozy was foot perfect. Well. Ok we couldn’t get the right lead initially and just switched to go left first, then executed a simple change to get the right side. But Nbd, right? The mare was quiet and steady and soft.

she’s so happy out in this big ring

It was honestly hard not to get greedy and take advantage of how good she felt… But ya know. There’s stuff I want to be able to do in the not-so-distant future, so we’re biding our time and being patient, per vet’s orders. 

just lopin’ along <3

Which… In the grand scheme of things, probably has its own benefit for a horse like Doozy who has historically been characterized by her anticipation. Small little micro rides where we only really ‘work’ for mayyyyybe 6 total minutes really reinforce to the mare that, ya know, she can just get up there, go to work, and be done, and it’s not a big deal. 

link to youtube here

No muss, no fuss. Just a nice little bit of trot and a few steps each way of canter. Not a bad gig! 

handsome mare

These longer evenings really add a relaxed vibe, too. Especially since, for the most part, lesson groups are still riding indoors - so we aren’t having to deal with sharing space or timing our rides strategically. 

so excited to keep chippin away at it!

It’s a wonderful and, if we’re being honest, much needed escape. And I’m so grateful to have this sweet mare, and so excited to keep doing the things I want to be doing.

Here’s to another weekend spent making time for the things we care about most. Hope it’s a good one for you all!