It's wonderful having an indoor arena in the winter - it means I can ride almost every day despite the weather. But indoor arenas can present their own challenges - doors opening and closing and horses and people coming and going, scary objects in the corners, lessons going on or too many people and horses in there at once, folks with poor arena manners who cut you off or almost (or maybe even actually) run into you. And then, in our part of the country, there's snow or ice sliding off the roof . . .
So far this winter, we've had very little snow. A number of years ago, I used to ride at a barn that had a very large indoor arena. Snow sliding off the roof was a frequent event in the winter, and when the ring was full of horses, it would be like someone set a bomb off - horses spooking and careening everywhere. Last winter was the first time I've ridden in an indoor in many years, and there wasn't much snow. There hasn't been much snow this year either, but there was a little bit of snow and ice over the weekend.
This morning Dawn and I had a very nice ride, even though I'm still getting over a very bad cold that seems to be going on and on. It was very cold again in the arena - 20sF - and Dawn was both very forward and very responsive, which made for an enjoyable ride. At one point, we were rounding a corner at the trot - why do these things always tend to happen in corners? - when there was a sudden, loud slithering, scraping noise from directly above us as a sheet of ice let go - the sun must have been strong enough to partially melt it. Dawn bolted, but I stayed with her and got her stopped after a step or two and we just kept right on working. She was a bit worried in that corner for a bit but we just kept on working and she settled right back down, although she expressed a bit of continuing worry by being even more forward. But all was well, and I was very proud of her for being able to keep right on working. Good Dawn!
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