Winter blahs

Woke up this morning super-grumpy. No reason for it - lessons went really well last night and I slept better than normal. I never enjoy mornings but today just ugh.

So turning out horses and Jack, who usually a child could lead, has a complete meltdown about the *gasp* hay next to the manure pile. Manages to trample both Apollo and I in his attempt to get free. N to think I was in a huffy mood to begin with. So banish Jack to a stall, turn Apollo and Bella out. Feed the others. Take Jack back out a little better armed and have the "thou shalt NOT run over people" discussion. And yes, I'm definitely scarier than the hay. But it took longer than I anticipated to get that through his little brain (Jack's usually a get-it-on-the-first-try kinda horse).

Ok well problem solved. But mood still, ummmm, less than great. Two horses on today's list: Lissy and Sienna. Have to say I discarded the idea of riding Sienna in less than a heartbeat - it's never a good idea to get on a fit TB when you're in a mood to pick a fight and NOT in the right state to deal with the resulting disaster. Horsemanship 101 - never make things worse. So Sienna gets the morning off and I tack up Lissy instead. Sunny but cold and even though the footing was pretty wet, I couldn't deal with going indoors (esp as it's supposed to rain more later), so Lis and I rode outside. She was tentative, given the slick footing, but gave me a solid effort. And while I wasn't riding brilliantly (tension and riding don't mix real well >;-P), at least it wasn't horribly bad either. N let's be honest, part of the reason we *like* Lissy so much is she doesn't require brilliance *g*

So we get warmed up, and she's going as nicely as she can when she has to think about where to put each foot, and my options are - continue dealing with slick footing and random puddles and basically ride for exercise rather than training OR go inside and school properly. Uh huh - didn't like either of those options.

Option 3 - hacking :) Thought about that for, oh less than a second after it occurred to me. Took me significantly longer to get the gate open than to decide I was going for a hack instead of working. hahaha so hop back on my rather confused little horse and head out. And it was soooo nice. Quiet and relaxing and Lis was a superstar. It's the first time I've had her out there alone, so you never know - but she was totally kewl with it. Eventually hop off in an area with good grazing to loosen her girth and let her graze for a bit - n *then* she has a minor meltdown. hahaha one of very few horses I've worked with who is significantly more confident with a rider on than being led. But eventually she chilled and realized grass is a good thing and no monsters are going to get her even if her person is on the ground.

Anyways - thanks to my awesome little horse and lovely hack, mood is significantly better - just in time to teach :) As to Si? Well she may get ridden this aft... We'll see :)