Firsts and lasts

Ideally, every year begins with a New Year's Day ride, although winter weather being what is, sometimes that gets put off by a few days or even a week.

Today is the sixteenth of January, and I am just now getting around to that first ride.

Well, technically, Olympia has carried me from the arena to the field a couple times, but that's so short it barely qualifies as a ride. 

But whatever. No matter how you measure it, the riding part of 2025 has officially begun.

My mount was Karen's Icelandic horse, Kaffi. He arrived last year with a busy mouth that hasn't improved with time. I rode him in Olive's hackamore a few times last summer. He seemed to like it, so we revisited that today.

Sigh.

It wasn't an exciting ride. Mostly, we just walked around the ring, working on relaxation and steering.

Then it was out to the pond.

Kaffi marched around like the good boy he is.

It felt really good to be back in the saddle.

This ride was very similar to the last ride of 2024.

I was working that day, so I arrived at the barn early, before anyone else was there. I put the bareback pad on Olive, and we went for a toodle.

As was usually the case, we started in the arena. 

When Olive started having soundness issues, I was consumed by her limitations. After her surgery, I experienced a complete mental reset. Instead of worrying about what she couldn't do, I started focussing on the things she could do, which was actually a lot. 

On this particular day, we were working on lightness. Olive was very relaxed, and I was able to guide her with the gentlest of aids. We were both very dialed into each other.

As we rode past the gate - which isn't really a gate at all, just a gap in the fencing - I felt Olive's body shift, like she was angling herself to duck through the space. Instinctively, I bumped her with my outside leg. It wasn't a big correction, but it wasn't the whisper soft stuff we'd been practicing. Olive was offended. She jumped sideways into the middle of the ring, her ears tight with disapproval.

I was immediately apologetic. 

"Oh, Olive," I said, as I rubbed her withers. "I'm so sorry. You're so much better at this than me."

Being the generous pony she was, she forgave me. We rode a couple more times around the ring without incident. Then I deliberately steered her through that same gate and out to the pond.

There's this spot, right as you leave the stable property where you can see a long way in every direction. 

Olive would often get stuck there, but not on that day. She paused for a moment, taking it all in. Then she marched around the pond as quietly and confidently as Kaffi did today. It was a very peaceful and serene ride.

We reentered the stable property through the parking lot. Instead of taking her back to her stall, I rode her straight to the mare field. I took off her tack, and we did kisses and stretches until I ran out of carrots. Then she wandered off to see her friends.

It was a completely unremarkable ride, and I didn't take a single picture -  all of these are from other similar days. If I had known it was the last ride, I'm sure I would have been tempted to do more. I'm glad I didn't. That was just Olive and I doing our thing - her a little bit better than me - the way I had hoped to do for the next twenty years or so.