Lease ride: Winslow

Such a cool visual of my ride!

On Saturday, I had my lease ride on Winslow, to make up for the lesson a few weeks ago when Riko was a bit more NQR than he had been. I had asked on Tuesday if Winslow would go out on the trails by himself, and if that was even allowed for a lease ride. K said he absolutely would and she didn't mind if I did that at all. 

So, my original plan was to work him for about 30 minutes and then hack him around on the trails for another 30 or so to cool him off. However, when I got to the barn, it was really overcast and breezy. I hadn't looked at the weather (in hindsight, I could have since I brought my phone in with me in preparation for being on the trails by myself) but I decided to brave the outdoor arena as long as the rain held off, and thought it might be better to not get caught on the trails if/when the skies opened up! 

I ended up schooling for about 50 minutes and then hacking around the barns for the last 10 minutes or so of my hour. I think Winslow and I had a lot of fun! He just turned 20, so I gave him a long warm-up at the walk on a loose rein and then slowly collected him and asked him to start giving to the bit and using his hind end a bit more with large, loopy figure 8s and a couple of 4-loop serpentines before we trotted. I think he just had his hocks injected because he felt a lot more fluid and less stiff than the last time I rode him a couple of weeks ago. 

We did a lot of trot work in 10 minute intervals, walking for a lap or two in between. At the trot, I focused on lengthening down the long side in a posting trot and then collecting and working on my sitting trot on the short sides. Winslow did some dressage back in the day, so while I don't think he was being flashy about it, he definitely knows how to extend when you push him! Our first few sitting trots were a bit bouncy and disorganized because he didn't really want to slow back down once he got going, lol. 

Before cantering, we walked a few laps of the arena and a boarder joined us in the outdoor. I don't know why I was surprised that she politely asked if they could work with us, but I said, absolutely! When she started trotting, we picked up a lovely left lead canter from the walk, making sure to stay on the opposite end from her with a couple of large circles. He came back to the trot quietly and then we walked and waited for her to change directions so we could canter the other way. The right lead depart from walk to canter wasn't quite as nice, but was still pretty good! When we came back to the trot, he got strong and tried to plow through my hands, but really that was the only thing he did "wrong" the entire ride. He was just generally pleasant and willing and I seriously enjoyed starting my day off that way! 

Since I had my cell phone on me, and actually remembered to turn the Equilab app on!