Winter Warm-Up

My friend, Trisha, has been giving Olive and me occasional lessons whenever she's in town.

I enjoy this immensely, so when Trish said she was going to be in the area a couple Fridays ago, I immediately cleared my schedule. Unfortunately, the weather didn't get the memo. When Trish arrived, the outdoor arena was knee deep in snow.

"Well," I said grudgingly, "I suppose we can ride in the indoor."

I rode Olive in the indoor a few times last winter, but none of those rides were good. She was so green, and that indoor is so spooky... It was just a little too much for both of us.

But that was last year. She's a lot less green now, and I'd already decided it was time to reintroduce the indoor. To that end, she'd been turned out...

and lunged within its cozy confines.

I hadn't ridden her though.

It turns out I was waiting for Trish to help me with that.

The lesson went well. Olive was reactive, but not scarily so. I can now see that riding in the indoor is possible. I just need to commit to doing it.

To that end, I signed us up for the Equisarte Winter Warm-Up Challenge. Equisarte is an inclusive, online community that hosts multiple, "choose your own adventure" style challenges each year. Last summer, Olive and I used the Summer Challenge to get us going down the trail. This winter, we're committing to twenty five sessions in the indoor between now and March 19.

So far we've been alternating rides with unmounted training sessions.

The indoor is attached to the barn, which makes for a lot of random and unexpected noises. One day, I turned her out while the stalls were being cleaned, so she could listen to all the sounds she could not see. 

Initially, there was a lot of snorting and spooking, but eventually, she tuned it out and hung out quietly with me in the corner. I probably should have done that a year ago!

Karen also signed up for the Winter Warm-Up Challenge, so she and Roy have been joining us for some of these training sessions.

They're working on ground manners, and he is already much improved.

I'll always prefer outside to in, but I'm so glad that in is an option for us now.

Thank you, Trisha, for the push. I can't wait for you to see our progress next time you come down!