New Year, New Places to Hack

Dee is officially back in work.  Of course, she doesn't believe me when I tell her she was on vacation.  She apparently thought she was retired, and has expressed her extreme displeasure at the fact that she is not a retiree.  She did some light work on Saturday and Sunday, and was, for the most part, a good girl.  Monday was a different story.  I don't entirely blame her, because as soon as we started, these two girls started wandering around the ring, in and out of her line of sight, and being a complete distraction.  Considering she's been on vacation for three weeks, I understand being easily distracted.  That said, once they disappeared, she was just out of the game.  No amount of leg, transitions, circles, changes of direction, leg yielding or anything else could get her to pay attention.  She was just going around with her head in the air, looking in every direction.  She wasn't being naughty, but she was completely out to lunch.  So once I got two trot circles where she took a breath and stretched, I stopped and decided to take her for a walk instead.  I would have loved to take her out in the big field behind the ring, which I think takes you out to a road at the college that winds around the perimeter (not sure about that, it's possible we would have gotten lost forever if I had done that), but we have been getting tons and tons of rain, and knowing what a mess her pasture is, I figured it was a bad idea to go hacking through the hay field.  I don't want to piss anyone off by ripping up the grass, and I think that even walking would have done that.  So instead, I took her up the dirt road that goes between her pasture and her neighbors' pasture.  That leads out to what I think is the main road in the college's campus.  We didn't go too far, but she was definitely a happy camper.  She was unsure, and a few times she would sort of hesitate while walking, as if to say "are you sure mom?  I don't know where we are!"  But, she marched along on a loose rein, looking around and seeming to enjoy the view.  My favorite part was when a car passed us, and it cast a shadow at her feet.  I don't think she understood the dark blob on the road coming towards her, so she kind of hopped over it.  Adorable.  Once it's dry, I think there are loads of places I can take her, but for now I guess we're stuck on the tar and gravel roads when we want to get out.