A Quick, Frosty Winter Ride

On December 2nd, Mercy, Starlett and I headed out into the subfreezing weather to stretch your legs. It wasn't bad out, besides the cold. No wind, rain, or snow. Just some overcast skies and the frozen ground.I decided to ride Mercy and pony Star on our ride, hoping that Star would actually move out a little faster to keep up with Mercy's mega fast walk. Well, the trails were iced over, so Mercy was kept at a slow walk. She really didn't appreciate that. We had to stop often to reinforce that freaking out and pulling through the bit was going to get her nowhere. Here is her 'can we go now?' look:

And then 'Oh! What is that?!'... and looses what we had just worked on... standing still until I say so...

*sigh* We ended up just doing the short loop, a 30 minute ride at most. That was just fine with me; Star really has a hard time on ice, especially when she hasn't been out very much and her arthritis is acting up. I didn't want to risk her getting hurt.

As the sun was getting lower in the afternoon sky we made our way back home. Right as we broke into the clearing before our house, 'our' three deer looked up at us. Not even caring about our sudden appearance, they returned to grazing a few feet away from us.

I said hello to them and we finished the trail home.