Brought to You by the Letter D

Vitamin D is something we here in the PNW are normally lacking this time of year.  Usually it's gray, rainy, gray, cold, wet, and gray.  This year it's been fairly dry with a mix of foggy/gray days and sunny days.  And now that its staying lighter later (and thank goodness for the time change this weekend) I've decided to take advantage and ride McKenna outside more.

I think part of the mare's resistance going right is that we're riding in the indoor, where the footing can be a bit slick if it's wet.  The few times it's rained this winter it's poured pretty hard and unfortunately a few spots in the indoor flood.  The gutters can't handle it and some water seeps in. I've seen McKenna slip while being turned out in the indoor, and I'm wondering if this A) caused her back injury; and B) makes her more nervous and unwilling to go forward inside.  I rode outside Sunday and yesterday and lunged her outside Monday and she was a lot more willing and seemed happier. 

Photographic proof that we ride outside.

Brief barn tour: My barn has two aisles, the upper and lower, with the indoor arena between them. The long side of the indoor arena run east-west.  Our outdoor area is directly off of the indoor, and it's long sides run north-south.

Marvel at my awesome paint representation of the barn

About 10 minutes into our ride yesterday as we were coming around the lower corner of the arena heading up the long side the big sliding door from the indoor to the outdoor started opening. McKenna spooked hard, jumping backwards and sideways at the same time. Thankfully she didn't do more than that; I had visions of my ass ending up in the dirt. I yelled at the boarder (very sweet but utterly clueless woman) who was sticking her head out of the opening and I'm pretty sure I dropped a few f-bombs at her.  She was very apologetic, saying she didn't know anyone was outside.   Once the door was all the way open I walked McKenna past it and she tried to run sideways again.  Since my heart was still in my throat and McKenna's whole body was vibrating, I figured we needed a break so I got off and put her on the lunge line.

One of my fav pics of Phoenix and Buddy standing at the offending door.

Once I was able to breath without shaking and McKenna was lunging past the door quietly I got back on.  My plan for the day was to work over some ground poles but I scrapped that and settled for some nice w-t-c. She was still a little sticky going right, but I didn't push it since she was being so much better than she was in the indoor. The weather is supposed to stay sunny and nice for the next week so we'll be able to get some hopefully good rides outside.

I can haz stretchy trotz?