I had a moment of guilt because I wasn't following my big plan after spending all this money on a fancy indoor arena, but too bad. Thankfully despite a rather crappy Thursday, I was ready for barn time. Probably because I went to bed at 8:30 the night before, and after crying in front of my boss (it's like the 30th time so hardly a big deal anymore), I just needed to turn my head off and ride my horse.
The wind was INSANE and blowing like the devil. There's apparently a show going on this weekend (somewhere...you know me, always asking questions), so a bunch of kiddos were at the barn with their folks getting ready. Trimming manes, and cleaning tack and filling trunks. I kinda loved it. I've already noticed there's two groups; the folks who proclaimed my horse "sturdy" and stood about with their 17hh beasts in their nice jackets and shoes, and then those that exclaim Moon is just the cutest pony while wearing their knit toques and joking about how much iced coffee they should have. Those moms and kids of the latter, I just gravitate to. They're what I want to someday be. Rolling my eyes at my kid while I head to Tims to grab a coffee while they spend another 30 minutes perfecting their horse's hairdo. Their horses aren't fancy or huge or expensive, but many are they loved. And their kiddos just, love horses. It's just that simple.
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| Yeah, my arms are like wings. But man am I happy. |
Anyway, the kids went about their business and Moon and I headed into the ring. I spent a good 15 minutes stuck in my head, wavering between "Are the kids watching and judging me?" and "Omg, that work meeting, what about, and who about, and what next", before I finally got irritated with myself. I half shut my eyes, in this loud arena with the wind making all the steel panels shake and odd noises float by, and I asked Moon to trot. I sat that trot and just felt it. I felt my body loosen. I told myself to let my hands become disembodied. To let me legs fall. My shoulders relax. I willed myself slowly into this almost trance, where I simply moved with Moon.
And it worked. Everything drifted away until I knew nothing more than the movement of the horse beneath me. Around and around we went, and I sunk so deep and wholly into that movement.
Finally we both felt more relaxed and content.
I knew it was a dressage day. We should work on flexing and softness and being supple. I know. But there was a jump course up thanks to the big show everyone was heading to and...well...I wanted to. Jumping is just that freedom for me.
So I did. Heck, I did in my dressage saddle and I really don't care if that was wrong. We whipped through that course over and over and it was wonderful. We knocked down one pole and I know we could have gone higher, but we just went. And it felt amazing.
When we finished, we were both sweaty. Like Moon was dripping. I'm seriously thinking about shaving him so that he's not so hot. It took FOREVER to cool him off. Many laps around the arena, then inside with a cooler, rubbed down, brushed, rubbed again and so on. It was a good 45 minutes to cool him off.
But I took some pictures of my old AP saddle to try to sell to cover the cost of my new CC saddle, and just messed around. Spoke with SL's husband a bit about the mascot goat and finally deemed Moon dry enough to go back. Man were his guts unhappy though. They swapped to 2nd cut hay and he was pooping like crazy. And SOFT. Ugh.
Anyway, it wasn't a learning experience, it wasn't a technical moment. But it was a hell of a lot of fun to just charge around the ring jumping crap like it's nobody's business. Man I felt refreshed when I got home <3
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| Doing a "combo"! |
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