Before the Storm

I had tentatively made some plans to haul out and ride Saturday, but when I checked the forecast Friday night, it looked like rain allllll day. Forecasting in the Midwest is sort of a crap shoot, so I figured I'd see how things looked when I got up and maybe I could squeeze in a ride. You already know I had possums in my garage and I had the uncomfortable feeling that was going to consume a good chunk of my day, so I didn't even sit inside to drink my coffee when I got up, I just put on riding clothes and dumped it over ice in a mug and headed outside. It was Ruby's turn to work, and everyone was out in the back pasture, so I decided to leave the three stooges there while I rode, and then I'd feed everyone breakfast after. 

The peanut gallery lol. 

The sky looked relatively threatening, so I tacked up in a hurry and hopped on to warm up in the bands. I was wearing my second pair of (super clearanced) tights and WOW I actually super love them, possibly more than the ombre ones? They have a little pocket that's perfect for my phone, although I'd really love one on the other side for treats, lol. 

"It has POCKETS"

Ruby was super good for our warm up, and then kindly stood like a statue for me to take the bands off from her back and toss them over the arena railing -- my horses are actual saints. I reintroduced a little canter and she was great -- I had sort of realized by that point that I committed to a 45 minute lesson and with the heat and everyone's fitness, a lot of my rides are 45 minutes but they're 2/3 walking, so I needed to make it a point to trot and canter for longer intervals. About the time I was considering wrapping up, DH came out to say bye before he left for the chiropractor -- 5 minutes later, he called me from the town 3 miles away to warn me that it was POURING. I hopped off, stripped tack, chucked everything in the tack shed, and was just wrestling off my boots when the skies opened up, lol. 

Good egg. She doesn't care about the dead people. 

I got Ruby back in the barn, ran back out to drag everyone else in, and got buckets filled and grain dumped. I had been hoping to ride Cinna too before the weather turned, but one was better than none! And then as per yesterday's post, we spent the rest of the day playing possum taxi and doing a little shopping :) 

$22 ariat boots on clearance. 

#accurateAF

#alsoguilty

lol

Our hibiscus is blooming!

I'm going to roll Sunday's ride on Cinna into this post too, since I don't have much to say about it. Since I knew Sunday was going to be busy, I wanted to get Cinna ridden pretty early. She came out a little dancy in the cross ties, which doesn't usually bode well for the ride, sigh. I had swapped her into the rose gold bridle (I was thinking about doing a full rose gold set up but #effor, especially when the only photos are cell phone shots I take lol), and I don't think she cared for it, she was super chompy and giraffey. She tossed a teleporting spook in during the warm up, and things really didn't get much better. 

When she engages full on giraffe neck like this, it can be hard to get her to relax. 

We did get there eventually, it just took 40 minutes of lots of trotting and cantering, and I quit once I got one good relaxed circle of trot each way. 

It was magically in the 60s when I woke up (okay like 69 but still, it wasn't 70+), but even so, she still managed to get absolutely soaked in sweat. 

Once I found a place to end on a good note, I called it quits. Can't win them all, and tomorrow is a new day and all that :) I'm going to be taking Ruby to my lessons, at least to start, but I do hope to get Cinna in on a few at some point. She can be really, really nice once things click and she relaxes through her neck, I just need some professional help to access that more consistently. She's very much like her mom in that way, and doesn't hesitate to retract that neck up and use it as a weapon against you, but once she really settles in and reaches for the bit, she's gorgeous. Maybe once everyone is more fit I can swing both of them in back to back lessons? Let's not get ahead of ourselves yet though, lol.  

My cardinal vine is AMAZEBALLS right now. 

It feels really, really good to be making the effort to write again! Hopefully I can keep it up, particularly as I resume lessons and start like... actually working towards goals again :)