Today’s ride of my mare Tara started with Abby refusing to leave the ring, as she is required to do while I am working in it. (She makes a huge nuisance of herself.) That was quite annoying, as I had to get off Tara to get the dreaded shock collar from the barn.

Then, out cross-country, we encountered thunder, lightening, barking dogs, and eventually rain. Tara was nervous over the loss of her stable mate Jackson, that being compounded by the disturbing weather. She was generally good, although she did pitch a small fit at one point. (I’m just getting her going again after a long winter break.)

In the middle of the ride, just after successfully navigating past potentially hostile neighbor dogs without incident, Abby, who is terrified of stormy weather, was walking next to Tara but too close to Tara’s front legs due to anxiousness. Tara, who was a bit more concerned with her own troubles than with the location of the dog, ended up stepping on one of Abby’s front legs.

Abby yelped loudly, leapt out of the way, and then refused to put any weight on that leg. Thinking that she must be seriously injured, I got off (yet again) to inspect the injury. I wasn’t much relishing the prospect of a return to the vet, to say the least. (Yesterday, we had to take Kate in to be restitched after she pulled out a number of staples.) Of course, the drama queen doggie was exaggerating greatly, as it was just a bad scrape.

It then rained all the way home. Joy.

In all honesty, it wasn’t exactly the most pleasurable ride ever. Nonetheless, it’s good to be riding again… particularly riding a mare as elegant, polite, accommodating, and athletic as Tara. Unfortunately, she is creeping up in age; she’s 21 this year. She’s definitely grown more stiff over the past two years, but I hope that slow and moderate work will help her. After all, I do want to enjoy many more rides much better than today’s!