My Happy Place

 Ahhhh Ashland.... My happy place. Dan's happy place! Especially when it includes a little gallop. We were supposed to meet Kelli and Peri today for a trail ride. I decided to get their early so I could let Dan burn off a little steam and make sure that he was on his best behavior for Peri... plus, honestly, we both could use a gallop. Danny clearly has been feeling his oats and the need to run and my soul and heart could use a good gallop. So we did. 

We got there at the same time as Kelli, but she went and did some dressage work so we hit the trails. We did some trotting and some cantering and then found a path to gallop. Dan galloped. It wasn't the flat out kick it into another gear heart pumping gallop that I sort of needed, but... it was a nice big fast canter... which turned into a little bit more at the end. I think had I asked again a second time, I would have gotten the next gear, but.... it was okay. It was enough. So then we headed back to the XC field to meet Peri and Kelli. After we left the lake, I remembered that technically we were allowed to jump today! So we hopped over the hanging log there by the water. And guess what?! He moved up to it!!!!!  Sure, it's small, but still! So yay! Then we saw the hanging log with the pine tree branches underneath it. He sort of shied at it so I let him take a peek. Then we circled back to it and he jumped it well! He moved up to it too! YAY!!! So then we carried on and I still didn't see Peri or Kelli so I picked up the canter and jumped one more BN jump! Wheee!! As we cantered up the hill we saw Lucy. Oops. It dawned on me that we weren't full members anymore. Ooops! I'm sorry Lucy. She's so sweet. She didn't mind. 

So then I went and found Kelli. Poor Peri had a headache and bailed. So Kelli and I went for a long hack. Marvin was feeling a little tired so we just walked for about an hour. We ended up back in the XC field and I had Kelli watch us jump again to make sure she didn't see anything. And I kind of wanted an excuse to jump again. So we hopped over the tappole 3 log stack twice, because... he was a little lazy about it. The first time I held, but also I think he was still half asleep. So then then I picked another jump and it was okay but not great. Then we did one more and I asked him to take off long and he did! It was super long too. Oops. But.. he went. And happily. So we quit with that. Kelli said he looked good. 

So yep... ahhh, I feel a little better now :)