The Wind Is Not My Friend

Saddled up this morning while temperatures were a little cooler and a little breeze was scuttling up leaves. The plan today was 10-12 miles and working in some hill trotting along the way. If felt like the wind was pushing out the last breath of summer as things got warmer, and gustier. Phebes isn't good in the wind with all the little rustlings of leaves and branches interspersed with the sounds of occasional limbs dropping in the woods. We just couldn't get into our groove with all the potential for horse eating phantoms, some of them real. So we concentrated on moving up some hills at the trot, walking down hills quietly, and changing up our gait, trotting ten strides, and walking ten anyplace that it seemed I didn't have her focus. It was actually safer to be working out in the open with wind, but Phebes was most bothered out in the open. At times the wind kicked up pretty hard. Coming back a Sycamore tree had fallen over our trail back to our property, so I had to dismount and encourage her through it on foot, pushing back the brush as we went. We didn't get in a lot of sustained trotting except for the trail up our back field which we repeated six or more times to pull that uphill. She was sweating pretty good by the time we got back, but I still had a whole lot of horse left. She dove into a pan of very wet mash, and had her some hay, then turned out with big Cree. She also drank out of her water bucket first thing. Another little piece of the puzzle seems to be that being tied to the trailer makes her anxious. If I just sit down and have a lead line on her she seems much more relaxed with her environment. Ten miles down today, and hoping for another eighteen on Sunday. ~E.G.