At last!!!!

Okay, so it was only 1 week without riding, but...gah!!! It was a WEEK... WITHOUT riding!!! I was pretty certain I might end up regretting it, because... let's face it.. Dan hasn't been ridden in a week, he is on previcox and muscle relaxers and just had his SI joints injected... it's a little chilly and brisk and the sun is out.... BUT.. he was pretty good! Oh, and he had to stand (semi-) still for the farrier for 1.5 hours this morning before we went for our ride. So.. props to him! :)

We didn't have a ton of time after the farrier but we had enough time for a light ride, per the doctors orders. And I'll be honest.. I'm exhausted... flat out just... done. I'm sure some of it is hormones... some of it is just the non-stopness that is my life.... add in moving a whole jump course of standards Sunday, plus painting the bathroom, plus spreading 400 lbs of fertlizer and then yesterday I adjusted 12 horses. So... I was just tired. And not feeling great lately... head aches and my back is killing me, as is my shoulder and wrists. So.... a nice easy hack was what I was hoping for. And it's about what we got. :) Mostly.

We started off down the path between the two small lakes towards the Gray Barn. I was putting my gloves on and all of sudden Dan spooked hard right. Hard!! Like, I almost flung off hard. Then he was like "oh.. just kidding". It was a hole... with a mud puddle. To be fair, it wasn't there the last time we were on this path. So we continued on and he was a goober. He kept stopping and turning to stare at the horses at Ashland. Like... would walk a few steps, then spin and stare. We did a few hills and trotted some. And then we cantered some. Yay!! I missed that! Yes... in a week... I know, I'm so deprived. ;) So then we finally headed back up to the XC field to head home. I was pretty tired. BUT I did want to get in my 5 downwards because I noticed that I kept letting him pull the reins from my hands in our downwards and... I'm a good student and do my homework. So we had 3 done, but in the XC field I went to get the last two. Ha ha.. He was a goober! He wasn't bolting, but he was forward! So I managed to get the last two downwards and then he felt so good I let him have another canter. And then he scooted out from under me and "bolted" a few strides. He came back but it took a little bit and then he spun and looked. I didn't see anything... and he admitted that there really wasn't anything either. But then he was all edgy and jumpy walking back to the trailer. Goofball! 

But it felt great to be back out. And by the end of our ride the sun had warmed things up nicely and it was quite toasty! Oh, and... ha ha! I really am tired.. I realized I put my browband on upside down on Sat when I was cleaning tack and didn't even realize it when I tacked him up. It wasn't until halfway through my ride when I was taking a photo that I realized it. And that was only because his forelock was wonky and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't behaving. Umm..... because your browband is now a tiara. :) But... Princess deserves a tiara so... :) .... if the crown fits... ;)