Searching for calm

Today it has been raining, A lot. Almost biblically in fact. Making us wish for a return to last weekend's freezing cold but dry days.....but never mind, we thought, we now have an indoor school at the yard, we can do some work with the horses and stay dry!

However, when we went to get the girls, they apparently had other ideas. I was expecting a certain amount of distraction due to the usual Saturday ritual of attempting to shoot the bountiful number of pheasants up in the woods behind the horses' field that seems to amuse the locals. I don't know how many they actually shoot, but they sure use a lot of ammunition during the attempt, it's just like being back in France really.....so Sky in particular was already somewhat on alert.

But they came trotting (well, sliding sideways at the trot, the field isn't exactly flat) down to the gate and walked along with us down to the yard, snorting at puddles and random bits of plastic, as is Sky's wont. It's not really Tari's won't however, and she seemed more worried about life than usual. Then we got to the Waterfall of Doom, where a gap in the guttering along the side of the school roof meant some water was falling from the hole and making a scary noise. This was simply not to be contemplated unless from the far end of the leadrope with much more and much  louder snorting. Not even peppermint horse treats would induce Tari to approach this monstrosity.....well alright, she got a bit closer but it's truly amazing how far her chunky little neck stretches out when she wants the treat but doesn't want to get any closer to something ;-)

Ah well, we thought, at least they haven't run away, but the general unease meant that we gave up on any idea of in hand or ridden work so we just decided to turn them out in the school and see what happened.

Running about, more snorting, pawing at the sand, a bit more running, generally ending up by the gate and not at all keen to be anywhere away from me and Ali. So we stuck with it, wandered about with them and bit by bit they calmed down enough for a few scratches and a bit of yawning.

So I suppose it was half an hour of what a friend of mine calls "nothing happens horsemanship". But by the end they were calm enough for me to be able to take them back to the field just in their neckstraps. In the rain.......