So much for consistent exercise!

Haven't ridden since NY (naughty me), but last night ( Mon 4th Jan) decided to brave the cold, but chickened out last minute - we don't currently have a heated changing area and it was -6C outside... so decided to lunge instead.

I haven't lunged Pinto for months - it is not my favourite thing to do, and it is always in the back of my mind that he'll bog off, which used to be such a bad habit of his.

Anyway, he certainly hadn't forgotten anything when we had done in the past, and went of as soft as you please. We did just a little walk and trot, and walk/trot transitions, switching from A to C (which kept me warm!). We did have a couple of whoopee moments, nad for the first time ever Pinto stopped as he reached the end of the line - so he got much praise for that.

We did have one hairy moment when I asked him for a canter and he pulled away from me, and I just had to let go of the line. I'm still very afraid of falling and breaking my wrist again, or having it wrenched about by a (too) heavy horse. Anyway, bonus is I was able to catch him immediately, and he settled within 30secs of me picking the line up (in the past it had taken up to 30 mins for him to stop jumping around after he has been "naughty" - so obviously he doesn't now expect me to beat him up for being "naughty" but it is more of an ingrained response, which, thankfully, is getting less and less).

So we then managed another canter depart, three strides and back to trot before we finished.

I'm still debating on whether to ride or free school tongiht. I'm a wuss when it comes to the cold, and it's looking like lows of around -10C tonight brr.