Snow Cool!

Decided that I was fed up with not playing with Harley and that the school wasn't that bad really, so this afternoon we played.

Did the usual "ready to ride?" checks. He's so cool even the snow's warm compared to him. So I jumped on bareback, as usual, and did FTR. He did it first time, so after a bit of rewarding rest time, I upped the ante and after four laps both ways I thought "That'll do nicely, Stop whilst we're ahead".

Max & Archie and Me & Harley wandered down the drive, over the road and went to find some grass. This is the first time I've ridden him out since the summer and the first time I've trail ridden bare-back, so I was looking forward to it, but not sure how good my seat was. (Last weekend he spooked in the school during out obstacle course demo and I didn't have a problem, so I should have been confident, but I wasn't).
First big puddle we came to Harley went all sceptical, but I kept my focus and he went through it. When we got to the big puddle on the corner, where we've had fun and games before , he was sceptical again, but Arch went straight through, so after a little hesitation Harley did too. I got off a little further on and we grazed until it started to snow. Coming back through the big puddle Harley went "Nope, not doing it". There was some uncertainty and some dominance , but I kept pointing his nose at it. If he tried, I'd stop asking and rub him. If he didn't try, I kept asking. In the end he just traipsed through it like it was his idea, which it was by then.

A few more passes through and we were actively seeking puddles on the way home. All in all an enjoyable restart to trail riding.