Light therapy

It was marvellous weather today.

It's getting lighter for each and every day, and you can feel that the sun starts to warm again.

It so nice; I feel like I'm awakening after the long winter.

Today Fame and I went trail riding again.
We had a clear blue sky and sunshine, and we were just as eager both of us to get going.

The fastest way for us to get to the forest trails is to cross a creek, which can be a bit exciting during winter time as it might/might not be ice. The horses don't like the in-between part.

Open, it's OK, frozen it's OK - but the rest, uhuh.

It was fairly OK, mostly open with some ice in between, and Fame was a good girl and went over without fuzz.

Just before crossing we passed two moose under the trees just some 8-10 m away from us.

As Fame wanted to stop and stare anyway, I took a photo with my mobile. Not a very good quality as it was dark between the trees, but maybe you can see them anyway. One is lying down and the other one has its butt towards us, but has turned the head looking at us over the shoulder.
I can assure you I saw them much better in reality!

We are lucky as we have a lot of possibilities to choose between when deciding where to ride.

Today we took one of the favourites, a road that has a steady climb up to approx 750 m height, with some 3 km length.
It is a good choice if you want to do some intervall training as there is no traffic.

I felt the steam pressure in Fame was building up , so we trotted a bit first, and the went into canter.
And I just felt that turbo motor kick in...
Now, I should have reined her in, and kept her a bit more short out of educational purposes.
But you know, the day was beautiful, the surface was good and we were feeling FINE, so I just let her get rid of that surplus energy and enjoy herself.
After a while, I slowed her down to a walk and let her regain her breath.
I normally take the rest of the way up in two canter sessions with a walk between, but today she was eager to go, and as she is in good shape I let her go all the way up in one session.
When reaching the top she was blowing a bit, but did not seem very tired.
I jumped off, loosened the girth and walked her down.
We just had to stop to enjoy the sun on the way.

The sun was slightly warm and we almost dozed for a bit, both of us.
They are cutting down the wood in the area, rendering it less beautiful than when the trees were there, but it definately opens up for some more sun.
As the weather was so nice, I just couldn't ride straight home, so we made a detour - I believe we were out 2.5 hrs in total.

On the way back, we passed one of Fame's favourite spooking places. There are two concrete blocks there, to prevent people from driving into a small path. She always spooks there, just to entertain herself.
But now they were buried under the snow.
She really was bewildered, I just burst out laughing. Imagine a small child, promised a candy bag and someone just snatches it straight under the child's nose and you get the picture...
Aaah, our horses are great!
So we happily cantered a bit instead.
Returning home to the stables we were content both of us, it was a lovely ride.