Winter Warm Up 14/25

After what felt like six straight weeks of non-stop snow, we have now entered the freeze and thaw cycle. It's icy in the morning...

and muddy in the afternoon. Neither is good for riding.

The footing is a little better on the trails, so we've done that a few times.

Mostly, though, we've ridden in the indoor. And Olive and I are both so tired of the indoor.

Happily, Karen came up with a way to make the indoor fun again. Behold: our tiny desensitization course.

Olive was the first horse to see it.

I halfway expected her to refuse to come in, but she was brave.

Snorty and suspicious, but brave.

The tinsel curtain was a nonissue, but she really did not like the tarp, especially when I started walking on it.

We were sorting through that when Roy and Delilah showed up.

Roy stepped right onto the tarp, like he'd been doing it all his life.

This was not surprising.

He's had police horse training.

He would do this all day.

Such a good boy!

Delilah was just as brave.

She walked right on to the tarp,

paused...

and put her head down to see if it was edible.

Such a good girl!

I was hoping their bravery would rub off on Olive, but no such luck.

After a lot of work, I got her to touch the tarp with one toe.

We worked our way up to one foot.

She was trying so hard to be brave.

After a lot of time and encouragement, she put two feet on the tarp.

So twitchy.

I fed her lots of carrots

and gave her lots of pets.

Then we called it a day.

This was such a fun change from our usual routine. As much as I'm ready to get back outdoors, I am already looking forward to setting up our next desensitization course!