Sanity

So many times I accredit my sanity to my horse/riding in general but this weekend it was so true.  This past week and the week ahead of me are absolutely insane with work/related things that really interfere with my life and it was so nice to spend a total of 14 hours at the barn the last two days.  Yes 14 hours, no I don't feel bad about it.  Between lessons and riding Mollie I feel very productive and ready for the week ahead.

There are a ton of things I want to talk about from this weekend but instead of making this post a million pages long and then having nothing to post about all week, I'll try to break it up.  First up is ride recaps because that's what I'm most likely to forget.

Saturday:

Saturday I rode 3 horses.  I nearly died.  I had a 2 hour break in lessons so tacked up one of the beasts that rarely gets used and cruised around.  I totally failed at taking pictures but she's a draft cross (basically looks like a dwarf draft) and is white and fluffy.  So she's basically a unicorn.  She's super green and out of shape so my major requests were that she go forward and straight.  She was exhausted within 20 minutes so I cooled her out and tossed her outside before more lessons.

Second up was one of the boarder's horses at the lesson barn.  I teach said boarder lessons and he hadn't been on his horse for a few months (had been doing strictly ground work).  We decided yesterday was the day to get back on so I climbed aboard first to make sure the horse wasn't homicidal.  Once that was determined the boarder got on and had his lesson.  There's a whole post I really want to do on this horse/rider duo though, so more on that later this week :)

Lastly was Molls.  By the time I got to our barn it was dinner time, so I fed her half (a whopping 6 pellets at that point.... kinda) and tacked her up.  It had been a week and a half since I rode her (eek!) between crazy work things and going away last weekend so I didn't expect much.  I let her go around on a longish rein as long as she was using her back and not flying around.  Her canters left much to be desired but she was actually better than I expected at the walk and trot.  She was an absolute FREAK whenever I made contact via my left rein however... not sure if it's tooth related, behavior related, poll/TMJ related or what, but something I definitely plan to keep an eye on.  I gave her a long grooming after, got tons of hair off, and put her away with the rest of her dinner.

Breaking this post up with a photo shoot fail from this summer.  Awk.

Sunday

I didn't ride any horses at the lesson barn this morning, but had some awesome positive lessons and was excited to get back on Molls.  Can we please also note that I cleaned a saddle and two bridles at lesson barn?  Who am I?  Gave Mollie a super long grooming because I'm an awesome horse owner because I forgot to put her BoT boots on until I was done grooming the first time.  Got her into the ring and there were FOUR of us.  Totally unheard of at our barn, but a sign Spring is coming and people are riding more :)  All the ponies were really good, Molls looked nice and we even got a compliment from someone watching which always feels good.  By the time we finished it was back in the 30s and windy but it was 4pm, the sun was still out, and we were itching to get outside.  So Mollie and I hacked around the property with one of the other people riding.  Both horses were on "high alert" but well behaved and it was an uneventful walk.

Hoping to get out to the barn at least one night this week for a ride!!  I'm definitely going to need it.