Horse Therapy!

I truly believe that being around horses is one of the best forms of therapy. For anything.  It's even better when the horse you're around is your own and actually has a bond with you.  

I've been on fall break since Wednesday.  It's basically just a long weekend with no classes on Thursday or Friday.  I came back to my hometown on Thursday morning with a little help from my friends.  Chels and I immediately grabbed lunch at Taco Bell (sort of a tradition) and headed out to the barn.

Orion was super lovey, even more than usual.  I think he's completely won Chels over at this point.  He tries pretty hard to befriend Kit too, but usually he just gets nipped at for his efforts.  He's all "*poke* Hi. I'm nice to you. Let's be friends," while she responds by biting him like, "Get out of my face, loser."  Ponies....  She tolerates him, but that's about it!

We spent a long time grooming and playing with them and lunged them both under tack before riding.  It limited the length of our ride, but we both felt like it was worth it.  Orion was super chill the entire time until I took him out to lunge.  Then it was all "RAWWWRRRR, I don't have to listen.  No. I'm not doing that.  Not doing that either.  K bye. *gallop insanely fast from one end of the paddock to the other and duck away every time Jordan tries to catch me*"

He figured out pretty quickly that his running ended up not being his idea anymore.  I just kept making him go until he stopped trying to run away from me.  Then we lunged some more until he settled down and didn't try to flip out again.  He was so full of himself, little bugger.  Chels got video of the best parts (he was so bad, but so pretty at the same time. lol), so I'll hopefully have that to show you guys sometime soon.

Yesterday was a rainbow kind of day.

Our ride was uneventful for once (thankfully) but beautiful.  The leaves have all already changed color here, astonishingly fast.  The drive from my college to home was pretty, but riding was absolutely gorgeous.

After we got back, I took Orion out into the field that he bucked me off in last summer. I haven't taken him in there since then because, honestly, I was a little scared it would happen again.  However, since he'd been lunged, ran himself half to death, and already been on a ride, I decided he would probably be least likely to act up at that point in time than any other.

Riding in the field. :)

So off we went.  I didn't take him straight across to the far gate like we do when we leave for a ride.  I wanted him to be guessing what we were doing instead of knowing exactly what, so I took him over to the left side of the field and sort of meandered among the trees that dot that part of it.  I didn't rush him or try to go over to the gate for a while. Any time he started tossing his head and trying to turn (a precursor to him deciding to buck), I would just make him do a big circle and point him toward a different part of the field.  He was pretty confused but listened really well.  Eventually we made it to the gate.  He didn't want to go through, which was okay with me since we weren't actually going on another ride.  I let him turn when I told him to, and we headed back across to the barn.  We trotted the last half or so.  :)  So proud of him for being a good boy!

After the field ride, he decided to check out the barn since Chels was inside.  This is definitely the people-only doorway he almost walked through.

The storm we narrowly avoided being stuck in.  It was scary and beautiful, especially against the bright leaves.