Not the best ride today...

But I will try to not get all morose over it as that is nonproductive. I saddled up today without any pre-work to speak of due to the time contraints of helping out Mom, and trying to get a jump start on Thanksgiving dinner here for the long suffering husband. She spooked in place big as soon as we hit the road, then I had trouble getting her to move forward because someone's horse had pooped on the road *LOL*, up the bank rather hastily and into the field. She traveled the field nicely, and started getting sticky once we were in the woods. On our own property she did keep forward momentum, but was hyper vigilant looking for horse eating rocks and trees, but alas...it was a horse eating doe that almost did us in. She spotted it before I did, had a mini-bolt, but stopped when she connected with the bridle. The ride pretty well unraveled after that. I took her off our property on trail she's ridden before but it has been about four weeks since we've been back there due to the hunting season. She was locking up and refusing to go forward, and I was having to work pretty hard to get her unstuck vs. getting into a battle with her. Finally I just took a deep breath, and got off, and walked her down the trail. With me on the ground she is very interested in her surroundings and willing to move forward. I figured since I was down there I might as well rattle some bushes along the way. Once we'd moved away from the creek and headed up the hill, I mounted back up and rode her home. The rest went fine. But the time I'd alotted for 3-5 miles was eaten alive by my Super Spooker. Ride over....until tomorrow ~Endurance Granny