Bareback and Bridleless Ride with Cocoa

After taking Dixie out and about it was Cocoa's turn. I grabbed my savvy string and carrot stick and Cocoa and I were off - "like a dirty shirt" as my Grandpa would always say. I had Cocoa sidepass too the bed of the truck so I could hop on and then we ambled around the yard for a while plowing through the snow drifts and then headed on the backroad. We cantered up the hill right away but then we had a stretch there on the road where we had to have a conversation and do some serpentines because she was set on trying to take a shortcut trail. After we got that ironed out that we were going straight ahead she responded beautifully and perfectly the rest of the ride. We cantered another long stretch and she was responding just off of my seat! We did some stopping, sideways, and backing up every now and then too. We continued trotting and she was mirroring me at what speed of a trot I wanted...I trot slow and she would then I would bring my energy up and so would she and trot faster. It was just perfect. When we got back to the lakes I asked her to canter again and then we did some canter...trot..canter..trot transitions till I finally asked her for a gallop. We were cruising along the convoluted backroad and I was surprised we hadn't run into any snowmobilers yet....haha Well we came running around the corner and there was a snowmobiler with some little kids parked in one of the parking spaces drinking hot cocoa. Cocoa skids down to a jarring trot for two strides while we both catch our breath from being taken by surprise and then I urged her into a fast canter again and we went on our way! I bet they were just as surprised to see US out there as we were to see THEM! We continued our canter and trotting till we got to the trails. Cocoa cruised down the trail and we got a bunch more trotting and cantering in...and her responding right off my seat...didn't have to use the carrot stick at all...and the savvy string was only of minimal use. We continued along and went to check out the BIG sledding hill..ran into a couple more snowmobilers..with kids mouths gaping wide open and pointing and saying "look it's a pony!" lol That just makes my day....nobody expects horses to be out on the trails in the winter with all the snowmobiling..and Cocoa and I always are. Element of surprise. :)

The rest of the ride went just as well...and we made really good time on the way back too. She wasn't even sweating much at all and we went at a pretty good clip through deep snow at times too. The back road thankfully was beautiful to ride on because it wasn't slippery like earlier and had a nice cushiony layer of snow on top. We were cantering along on the way home when we ran into Michelle walking Bundy so we talked and I hopped off and walked the rest of the way home with them. Overall an ah-mazing ride! Cocoa and I haven't done much bb and b riding lately but she sure didn't show that! She did great.


Savvy Out,
Olivia, Cocoa, and Dixie