Had a little to much unnecessary excitement on the highway tonight.
Nasty weather today has made the highways a bit treacherous, on the way out they weren't to bad, there were sections where you could feel the wind pushing against the van and snow was blowing over the road. I didn't see anyone in the ditch and there weren't a lot of other cars on the highways, which was good.
On the way home it was a lot more wind and a lot more blowing snow, plus the added bonus of black ice. There were more drivers too.
So, I was about 3km from the turn off into the city, and there is a huge big rig truck ahead. He was slowing down but not stepping to break so there were no lights. I stepped on the break to try and slow down behind him, I did...then we (meaning me and the van) hit some black ice. She (the van) started to fish tale, and not just a little one, but wide swinging ones across the other lane, so I cranked the steering wheel in the opposite direction, over compensating, we turned and slide around to the left and back to the right a couple times. Heading towards a bridge, and really, in a semi out of control vehicle is where you want to be heading, what with the nice cement supports. Actually, with all the snow drifts there was no way we'd make it there. Anyway, thank god for ABS breaks, otherwise we would be in the ditch, but we stopped a few feet short and no one was hurt. No one was anyone near me, so me and the van posed no risk to them while we were swinging wildly down the road.
As for Tommy, he was okay. He has a really flat trot, and I've decided that I don't really want to use the crop, I get why people want to use them or need them, but I think, for me and Tommy anyway, it's kind of like taking the easy way out. I'd rather have to work harder to get him to do the work. That might be a bit different for when it comes to jumping, but we'll see. So yeah, flat trot, but we did lots of circles and some serpentines, unfortunately there were a couple other people there. The one lady is really nice, but the second is the best dressage rider at our barn and she kind of acts like she owns the whole arena. She's so annoying. I like watching her ride, but I hate riding with her. You try to do your thing and stay out of her way at the same time, but she makes no effort to stay out of your way. We pass left to left, but she was like "try not to get so close, he's being a bit crazy." She was polite enough, but at the same time its kind of frustrating because I ALWAYS try to be out of her way but then its harder for me to focus on what I want to be doing with Tommy as well.
He was less than great at the canter, he had trouble picking up the left lead and trouble keeping it, always dropping it at the gate and doing this rushed trot when I asked him to canter, even when we were starting from a balanced trot. Once we finally got it, he did well at the circles and what not. But at the right, not much better. He picked up the lead okay, but it was kind of impossible to do our 20m circles and other exercises because the dressage rider kept getting in the way.
Going out again tomorrow after kick boxing, so hopefully there will be less to no people in the barn.
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