I've been taking full advantage of the break in our normally rainy weather and have been out every day. Poor Ginny took one look at me this morning, saw the halter in hand and walked off quickly the other way. Once or twice a week rides are more than enough, she says. Luckily the temptation of coming to say hi and to see what I was doing eventually overruled any thoughts of playing chase.
I met up with a friend this morning at the ring. Too bad, so sad, the ground was too frozen in there to do much, so off we went on the trails. Both horses were very happy with that development and my friends usually bombproof older mare was dancing around acting like...Ginger ;) I think the horses just get a little giddy when the sun comes out. I'm sure they must get as tired of the rain as we do. I should stop being surprised by it, but Ginger was really, really good. I wasn't sure how she'd do with the other horse being a bit excited, but she quite happily led or followed and generally kept a lid on it, even though I could feel she was wanting to have a dance party of her own. We did a short 90 minute loop up around the lake close to us, with a quick stop for them to play in the water.
The only excitement was when we were all pretty sure a passenger plane was landing on top of us. Yes, really. We were riding home on a hillside a few miles east and a bit above the airport, which usually is not big deal. 99% of the time the planes land coming in over the ocean - the winds are apparently more favourable and the terrain a little easier. Today though, the pilot came from the mountain side. Our trail must line up perfectly with the runway because I could hear the plane coming up behind us, and coming, and still coming, getting louder and louder. I guess they must have to come in pretty low too, basically following the slope down to the airport because I turned around and could see the people in the cockpit. I would have waved to them if I was feeling more friendly ;) Ginger jumped around a bit and I don't blame her, it was a propeller plane and it was LOUD and I'm pretty sure there's no way she could have seen what was making all the noise, since it was above and behind us. So, we can say Ginger is basically aircraft safe, because we survived and I doubt we'll ever need come anywhere near that close to an airplane ever again.
What it felt like (not my photo - this is the approach at the St Maarten airport):
Objects in rear view actually smaller than they sound: The real plane (from jetphotos.net):
My riding buddy was mentioning she'd like to go away to a weekend clinic/camp and asked if I'd like to come with her. I think it's a great idea, I've been really missing having lessons and it sounds like it's a 3 day weekend lesson format where they work in a group trail ride and some rider fitness sessions as well. The woman hosting it travels to do the odd clinic here and I've audited and liked what I saw. I think we'd have a lot of fun and would like to hope we can make it happen before I leave again for work. I've been trying to sign up for the local clinics but they are always full with 'regulars' and I'm permanently on the wait list. Either that or I smell bad...:)
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