Chinooks are a treat!

We are so lucky to have a weather phenomenon called a "Chinook" to break up our cold & long winters. Every so often (sometimes once a week) we get a pressure system that brings warm air from the coast over the mountains and brings our temperatures up as much as 20 degrees (celcius). This week we went from a freezing -25 (not including the wind chill) up to a lovely +6 yesterday and today. Through the week we got quite a bit of snow too... So nice weather + snow.... = sidesaddle in the snow!

Had a lovely ride out in the snow on Oliver. He's such an easy going gelding that I thought maybe I'd break out a sidesaddle and try him outside. Not a foot wrong and he was EXTRA springy in all that deep snow. His trot felt a lot like riding the piaffe on Robin's Owen. So much fun!! His canter was HUUUGE though and a bit tricky to ride, so we didn't do much of that. What a gentleman though, just having so much fun riding him. Here's a short video taken from before Christmas, we hauled over to a larger arena and had a bit of a sidesaddle play date. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EHdgi8oPfc I'd say he's pretty natural at this whole sidesaddle thing! :D