Fall Comes To An End

With snow flurries in the forecast over the weekend, I guess it is official that Winter has arrived and Fall has left the building.

It was a great season for riding.  I know it is so cliche’ as a rider to say Fall is my favorite season, but seriously how can it not be?  It is a time of crisp air, frisky horses, colorful landscapes, sweaters and boots.

This Autumn was a great mix of focused progressive horsemanship and relaxed trail rides.

A group of about 20 riders I know are part of a Facebook group and collectively we came up with a list of “challenges” to get us through the end of this year.  Every Monday a new one is posted and then we all share our stories and photos of how things are going for us on that particular challenge.  As an example, here are a few of the things we have worked on so far:

• Gaits within a gait
• Transitions (up & down) with no reins
• Footfalls (knowing what the are feet doing and getting specific about asking for control of them)
• Bridling from your knees

The challenges are a great way to have some purpose and direction when I go out to ride.  It is also cool that a group of us are working on the same things at the same time.  So we can bounce things off of one another, sympathize with similar issues and celebrate the breakthroughs.

Our trail rides have been particularly fun.  Shared with a few local friends or my hubby there have been lots of laughs and happy, well behaved horses on our outings.

So it is with mixed emotion that this season comes to an end.  I am thrilled that the Christmas light are all aglow, but a bit sad to see all the leaves on the ground with the knowing that layers of clothing and Carharts will soon be pulled out of the closet.