Pre-Training Trainer Ride

 The university I work for starts summer term today, and with the Juneteenth holiday they gave us Friday off instead of Monday so classes wouldn't be disrupted. Which honestly, doesn't feel ok with me, but whatever. My job requires someone come in every day and this was my holiday to work in our rotation. Thankfully we usually only do the bare minimum on holidays so I was done in about three hours. I had decided to use the rest of my holiday day to haul up for a lesson/trainer ride with Trainer A.

I had thought Cinder was feeling better after her round of Adequan, but wanted a second opinion. And since Cin is moving up to A's July 1st, I figured it would be a good pre-training check in. We got stuck in a major traffic jam on the way up and during our 30mins of stop-and-go traffic Cinder had a huge fit in the trailer. I was half tempted to pull over and see what the hell was wrong, but as soon as we started moving she calmed down. She did unload like a bat out of hell and was pretty worked up as I tacked up at the trailer. 

From baby horse having a tantrum to respectable hunter in 30 minutes

 

A saw Cin having her fit at the trailer and wisely grabbed her helmet to ride her first. I ran to the restroom while A got on and came down to the ring to see them attempting to trot. Cinder was flinging her head around like she was possessed. A just gave in and let her canter it out for a few laps each way and Cinder settled down. They did a little more trot and canter work before A pointed Cinder at the fences set up. 

First time seeing the astroturf rails? No problem

If I hadn't know that Cinder has only jumped twice since February, I wouldn't have guess it. She hopped around everything like no big deal, only jumping big at a square oxer that she didn't realize was an oxer till she was over it. She got funky distances but figured it out; she hit rails but didn't react; she acted like a pro and I was so proud of her. A said she felt great, and that she loves Cinder and is so happy we're coming back. 

I lunged her on Sunday and we had a cuddle session in the arena afterwards

 

We then switched and I had a little trot and canter lesson. Mainly it was A reminding me to relax my arms and not hang on her face. But we got some good stretchy trot and it felt like I had my horse back, something I realized I hadn't truly felt since February. Cinder was definitely tired and traveled home without attempting to kick a hole in my trailer.

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