When the Dark Months hit and the desire to ride is hit by the short dark days and icky weather, and adventure season is over, I pause and take stock. I bounce back and forth between giving Tarma a month or so off to breathe and recover and be a horse, and doing just enough to still enjoy each other and not have to start from total scratch in January. The bulk of my visits are to check her over, bursh out her mane and tail, let her roll in the indoor, and fuss over her feet and white stockings.

We’re doing a lot more ground work, now that I’m back in the office part time (I have a whole other ranty post about how much I hate it) I have less time to ride. We’ve gone from not being able to side pass at all, with accompanied snarky commentary from Tarma about it, to the lovely, quiet, soft version obstacle judges like to see. She still shuffles as much as actually side passes, but we have the concept down. Now we just have to transfer it to the saddle…

Twice now within the last week, Tarma has seen me coming down to the pasture with halter in hand, and walked all the way up to me. This is mind blowing and I almost cried the first time. Tarma is very much her own horse, and even in the pasture pretty alert. Usually she’ll make me hike out to wherever she is that day, she’s stopped running and farting around first lately, but to actually walk to me…bliss.

I had plans to get into some dressage lessons, but timing and financials make that tight. I also have to get back to the gym! I was doing so well and I skipped a few workouts after our endurance ride, my knee was fine to walk on but I didn’t want to lift on it. And now I haven’t been back….yikes. I’m struggling to find a daily schedule that fits everything in now we’re commuting three days a week, and I’ve started basic agility training with Benny. Fun stuff but another time suck!

Writing this while Tom drives us to the office, I can feel a bit of hope returning as after days of winds and rains, today is sunny. Time to up the Vitamin D for sure! Everything seems closer to reach with a bit of sun…