January 10, 2009
After a busy afternoon in the city, we finally made it home. Mom instantly asked if I wanted to go for a ride. I admit, I weighed my options since Nova and Kaila are the only horses at home. Then decided, what the hey, today's as good a day as any to end up in the snowbank.

After catching him and eyeballing him as he was looking pretty spunky when I was leading him up, I had a decision to make... Saddle, or no saddle? Since it was already late afternoon, we weren't going to be going for very long... I opted to go bareback. Telling myself I was totally crazy for doing so... Very greenbroke 3yr old, hasn't been handled let alone ridden in more than a month, and never ridden in the snow - ever... Recipe for disaster, really.

I get him all bridled up, and he was really good for that. Took be a little longer to get everything bucked up on his new noseband. Then put him beside our mounting block, eyeballed him wondering if I could manage to get up on him... Then made a flying leap for it, scrambled up... He... Did nothing.

Waited for Mom to get on, and off we went. He was a bit excited at first, which I expected. Wanted to trot/jog instead of walk. I did my best to remain relaxed and not wonder how hard the ground was. Once we made our way out front he settled down and we had a pretty good ride. We didn't go that far, and turned around to come back the same way to avoid some scary dogs that might have been too much for us.

Just after we turned to come back a semi in the pasture beside the road released it's air brakes and both horses spooked a little. Thankfully Nova just did a shudder-sidestep and then stop. Whew! No one hit the dirt. We continued on, and he was very relaxed on the way back. Probably because he'd already had seen all there was to see on the way out. I even rode him part of the way on the buckle, just chatting with Mom. It was nice. And the bonus? He's very comfortable!!

Made it all the way home without incident - I kept tellling myself not to comment on anything in case I jinx myself. I had Mom take a few pics once we got back, even though it was getting 'dusk' out.

January 15, 2009
My initial plan after I got home today was to take Nova for a walk to the mailbox to get the mail... But after watching him race up from the far back corner of the pasture to the gate at literally mach10, then buck and come to a screeching halt infront of me, I quickly changed my mind.

He munched on a handful of sweetfeed while I gathered up my camera and the arena keys. Then off we went... Until we reached the end of the driveway. About five feet onto the road he slams on the brakes and eyes the two 'scary' ladies walking on the road at the top of the hill like terrible monsters. So of course my fresh, excited, hasn't been out of the pasture in 5 days boy decides to act like a super fresh, retardely excited, hasn't been out of the pasture in years horse. I'm sure the ladies thought we were mentally insane or something because he decided to jump and leap and end up half in the snowbank... One of the ladies even suggested letting him stand still and they'd walk past. But after that initial display we walked over to them and he made friends with them. One of them got to experience his very wonderful habit of licking hands - she thought it was pretty unique. (I do think their final impression of Nova was a young horse with plenty of energy, thankfully!)

As we continued on our way he was still plenty excited, but not nearly as badly behaved as he first was. He went over the snowbank just fine (no flying leaps) and then stopped and looked like he wanted to roll. Made it to the arena safely where I turned him loose.

This is what ensued:

After he was done ripping around like a lunatic, he came over to me and hung out. From past experience once he does this, he's done running around (unless of course I run around, which wasn't happening in that snow). So I packed up my camera and we started back home. OF COURSE he was still full of energy!! On our way back up the snowbank onto the road, he did something (I missed it) and ended up slipping a little I think and had snow up higher than his hock and scrambled out of it onto the road. So, I pondered a second then sent him back through the snowbank, let him paw around at the bottom, then asked him to come back up - which he did wonderfully. And off we started for home... I ended up grabbing his mane and letting him pull me up the hill because he was walking so fast. He still had plenty of energy obviously!

I had a very fun day, full of lots of smiles and laughter. I love Nova.