A update of sorts...

Phew! I haven't posted here in a long time!  Not much is really going on, so I haven't taken the time to try and write.  The renovations on our house are all done and as a result, I have a bit more free time on my hands.

I've been out to ride 2x in the past couple of weeks. Not much, I know, but I had a really bad flu last week and was out of commission for several days with a a high fever! Not fun at all.

I had a really great ride on Dolly 2 weeks ago - we had just got a big snowfall and the trails were in great shape. I went out with a friend and we walked all over the farm and I didn't have a single problem with Dolly!  It was very fun walking through the deep snow drifts. I wish I had a few pictures, but I was just enjoying the day too much to think about it.

I went out again last night and had an interesting ride, considering I almost electrocuted my poor horse!  The barnyard is a mucky mess of melting snow/ice and manure/shavings that the barn owners have put down to make it less slippery.  There are extension cords running to the water trough heaters and I didn't even notice the cords, since they were half-buried. I moved Dolly over to the mounting block and she started to quiver.  I was fiddling with my girth and getting my reins gathered and by the time I noticed something was wrong, Dolly levitated up and sideways and then did a 180 turn. I managed to hold the reins and had no idea what had just happened!

Dolly stood quivering and wide-eyed and I stood there with my mouth open, wondering what was going on!  My friend walked over to the mounting block area and noticed that two extension cords were plugged in at that spot and she could hear the zapping noise of arcing electricity! There was alot of heat coming off of the two cords, so we quickly unplugged the cords to stop the arcing/smoldering! Unbeknownst to me, I had parked Dolly right on the sparking cord!!!  I felt sooo guilty, but we all had a bit of a laugh too.

Dolly calmed down after a few minutes and we were able to do a short ride.  There is still alot of wet snow on some trails and there is alot of water underneath. So, the horses would break through the snow and then hit water and they were having a hard time with it.  I was able to get Dolly out quite a ways and we even crossed a ditch with a running stream, but between the bad footing and her near-electrocution, she was getting a bit stressed.  I called it and headed back to the barn. I then hand-walked her up and down the laneway (about 1 mile in total) a couple of times and she was relaxed again.

I'm looking forward to getting riding again after a long, dark winter.  The laneway is about 1/2 mile long and is now free of ice, so that will probably be our only option for the next week or two until the snow completely melts and the fields dry out a bit.  We are having crazy warm weather right now and it is supposed to last all week, so I'm hoping that helps!  I'm feeling good about Dolly and my confidence seems to be high right now, so I'm pretty sure we will be able to over come her spinning/balking and make some good progress this year.