Easter sun

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And finally, on Easter Day the sun took mercy on us frozen Polar people, and showed herself.
Wonderful.

I took a trail ride with my daughter's pony Charlie in the morning.
The gravel roads are just perfect now, soft and inviting.
He needs some power work to increase strength, so we took intervals of collected canter on our way upwards.
Collected canter, followed by a short stretch of extended canter to flush that lactid acid away from the muscles, and then a walk until the breathing is normal again.
New interval.

When going downhill, we trained on stretching out in the walk.
Hard work thought Charlie, who tried to solve the equation with jogging instead.
Without success.

At the edge of the road the water from the melting snow  has created snake patterns.

A stretch through the forest again.
Once the snow has melted away we will get some wonderful spring flowers here.
Charlie still would like to jog:
"We're on our way home now...please?"
Nope. No jogging.

When coming home both Charlie and Fame got their lunch in the sun.
I love to let their coats finally get some sun and air after using rugs through the winter.

Guess who else enjoyed her lunch?
First time sitting out in the sun this year.
Ah. I have waited for this sunny day the entire Easter. I am so happy it finally arrived!

After lunch it is time for horse #2.
Fame got kicked in her left front leg on Thursday and is on antibiotics, so we're just out walking to get the swelling down. Luckily it was at the upper, muscular part.

She loves to stop and have a look around.

One has to enjoy the view.
But hey, what's this??

Oh. Some green stuff!
(Well. Green? But one cannot be too choosy)

Snow is no hindrance.
Notice the elegant way we are resting the front leg here.

And one final look at the view before returning home.
Thanks for accompanying us!

Friday's entertainment

If the screen is black, just click on the play button.

Just how stupid can you get???

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Here we are at in between.

In between winter and spring.

This is what the riding arena looks like

*sigh*

Not much sensible work to be done there...

And this is what my car looked like when I got out to drive to work the other day.

Arrghhhh.

Last weekend, we went trail riding again, me and Fame.

It IS nice that spring is approaching, but ridewise it is a mess.

Can't work in the arenas, and on the trail the snow is getting what we call "rotten", it doesn't carry the weight of the horses at all times.
So we hump around, not nice at all.

Roads are better.

Coming down to the creek, Fame was thirsty.

So she decided that she wanted to drink - with her front legs down in the water, and her hind legs still on the thick ice edge at the brink.

And I was sitting bareback.

I guess you can get the picture.

A nice, fine slide straight down into the water...

....but I managed to hang on!

When my daughter was 5-6 yrs old, the Shetlands pony she was riding did the same thing.

Unfortunately she DID take the slide, straight into the water, and it was at this time of the year too.

She has always been very fond of taking a bath, but even to her it was a weee bit cold.

Poor thing!