Cold Cob Day

Our temps with wind chill were about 30 degrees. I went to Peggy's house first since Gretchen was doing Rosemary's morning dose. Unfortunately, Kayla decided to throw up her breakfast in my car and Peggy was getting sawdust delivered making my ride a bit later than expected. At least Comrade was not covered in mud. I was riding bareback to stay warm and I put on toasty toes. Nothing worse than cold feet.
Comrade was full of it. He tried to run through my aids when I asked for lateral movements. I increased the weight of my half halt and maintained my insistence. Soon I was able to get him listening to the left, but he was inverting when I went right. To loosen him up, I did some figure 8's at the canter. He did both leads, no bucking, really well. Then I went back to the lateral. Shoulder in, straight, haunches in, straight, leg yield, straight. Comrade grunted, but listened. A couple times I went over the low jumps to get his attention. Finally, he relaxed going to the right. His crest got that nice floppy motion. Good time to finish. Peggy and I warmed up with hot chocolate while watching a video of a Sec. C mare that is for sale.
The video put in the mood to ride Rosemary. I bundled up and dressed Rosemary in a quarter sheet and the bareback pad. Then we went to brave the cold. I was pleasantly surprised by her work, since it has been a long time. She was stretching and reaching into the bridle nicely at the walk. At the trot, she tried to stretch though she could not maintain the contact. All considering she was a star. Rosemary felt happy to be back to work. I played with corners asking her to "come about" a term we use when asking her to turn in harness. It seemed to help her figure out what I was asking her to do. These Cobs are so smart.
Snow was starting to fall while I rode, which meant I needed to be done. My cold cob rides were both worth braving the weather.

My girl all ready to work :)