First ride

It has been a long time since I rode, probably last September sometime, before Sinwaan broke my leg in the AHA halter class. This weekend Ruth and Heather agreed to come out to the barn where I board Sinwaan so we could all ride together. I was really glad to have their company because one thing I have learned is that Sinwaan is a much better-behaved horse with company. He prefers to follow, and when he has someone to follow that works out well.

I got there a little earlier so I put Sinwaan in the round pen and worked on walking and stopping. He did great so I brought him in and started grooming him. Just then I heard the trailer pull in so the girls had great timing! We all got tacked up and were ready to go at the same time. Sinwaan's girth was only 1 hole bigger also. I wasn't sure how much weight he might have gained with all this time off but apparently it wasn't much. And it was closer to only being 1/2 hole bigger but I didn't want to make it too tight. He practically threw his head into the bridle, I think he's missed our riding time together.

I also put his red front boots on him since he is currently unshod. I was glad he had been trimmed recently, they went right on without too much fuss.

I was a little worried about getting back in the saddle, but I used an overturned bucket as a mounting block and popped right up. Yeah! Man it felt good to be aboard again.

We headed down Elliot and we walked until we got to the turn, then we did some trotting to the railroad crossing. We walked more to the dirt road and then did more trotting. It was getting warm but while trotting we had a nice breeze. It was a fantastic ride.

I could tell Sinwaan was out of shape because when I would ask for him to transition to a canter from the trot he would stumble on his hind end. He also was slowing down on the way home, instead of speeding up like he usually does.

The hardest part for me of the whole day was getting that last boot off. The first boot was not as tight and popped off pretty easily. The second boot, man, I had to really work at it and I was glad that Sinwaan was cooperative!

It was fairly hot by then so I hosed Sinwaan down before turning him back out in his paddock. The first thing he did was go and find a good spot to roll. What a pig! He looked comfortable and I was thrilled to have finally taken him out for a ride again.

Easing back into barn time

Well it's been a very long time but I finally found myself at the barn again. Chad was scheduled to meet me at 1 pm for a farrier appt. I got out there a little early so I turned Sinwaan out in the paddock surrounding the round pen so he could nibble on some greenery. In the meantime I scrubbed out his water tank and started refilling it. In no time at all I heard a truck coming up the driveway so I went out and caught Sinwaan and brought him in. I didn't notice the time then, but when Chad was done with the trim it was only 1:07 so he must have been pretty early. While Sinwaan was getting his feet trimmed, I worked on detangling his mane again. It sure gets knotted up! I gave him a good grooming, trimmed his bridlepath as best I could with scissors (it looks terrible but works) and then we went out to the round pen for a little refresher. Well Sinwaan started out at the trot like he always does but wasn't as frantic about it as I remember him being when I first started working him when he arrived on western soil. It didn't take too long and I had him walking both directions and stopping on command. Good enough! I took him out of the round pen and held his lead so he could hand-graze on some grass...he earned it today. I am looking forward to the day when I can climb back aboard. Seems our one endurance ride for this season might be cancelled, so there goes my motivation to really get him in shape quickly, but we can still enjoy some rides with Ruth once I am ready.