Sore!

Desire and I joined N and her mare at the lake today for a gorgeous, sunny, warm 16.9 mile ride. Then I came home, fed the horses, ate an epic steak dinner prepared by my miraculous husband. And then I tried to get up off the couch--umm, I think I broke myself!! I can't believe how sore my seat and thighs are already, only a few hours after the ride. Once in a while I'll feel a little tight the next day but I am fully 100% sore from the waist down tonight! That's what the holidays will do to you. All the drama with our heater and visiting family etc meant Desire sat for 2 1/2 weeks. And so did my bottom. I bet I'll feel interesting tomorrow. 

Desire's Trailing Issue:  A much delayed stroke of genius. The divider in my 2 horse straight load actually has a pin to pull that allows it to swing all the way over to the other wall, essentially giving the horse twice the standing room. This morning I used the beta loop/string attachment salvaged off an old pair of reins to secure the divider to the far side of the trailer so it wouldn't swing or bang too much. I also found one sharp spot that she could cut herself on and fixed that (Yeah, zebra striped duct tape makes it all smooth--what! Serious engineering happening here). I turned her out into the arena for a 5 minute spazz, groomed, and she loaded in nicely (with the dressage whip in my hand). The first thing she did in there after loading was one of her jelly legged spazzes and then SWUNG her butt over to the right which in the past would have caused her to whack the divider but today there was that extra space and she just stutter stepped into it. I fully saw her turn her head in surprise to see what was happening back there. Aha! More room for my rumpus. She came out of the trailer at the lake dry!

We had a great ride out over the ridge and down below the dam, we even crossed the road and did a loop on the far side of the trails that are best accessed from the parking lot where my truck got robbed. Those far trails are really my favorite and I hadn't been on them in a long time, I so enjoyed them today. Desire drank at almost all the water stops and we had a couple of good grazing sessions along the way. She peed--in the stream where we stopped for them to drink! Luckily I was downstream of N *cringe* Desire is NOT shy about her bodily functions, she always poops and pees under saddle. Just like last time, after about the 15 mile mark was when she really quieted down, got a little tired, and when we would stop for any reason she would just Stand. Still. Not easy for her to do. But she was sure standing like a champ 15 miles in :-)  Both horses were hungry, they were eyeballing and snatching at the grass along the trail the last few miles and Desire ate out of her hay net back at the trailer as well as gobbling any carrots offered. 

Sweaty hungry mare back at the trailer

Oh! My right hind boot came off when we were trotting uphill. Well not came off, it actually stayed on thanks to the gaiter and somehow slid all the way around so Desire was stepping on the gaiter and the boot was facing behind her. Amazingly the gaiter didn't rip at all, but the screw holding the gaiter onto the boot came off. Not a big deal though, I saved the little threaded washer part so I just need a little screw. So Desire finished the ride down one hind boot but did fine and I'll fix the boot tomorrow. N brought me a bag of her Easyboots that weren't working out for her mare and I scored 2 size 1 Epics to try on Blaze! I'll try them out and buy them from her if they work. 

Desire trailered home nicely, she came out of the trailer totally dry again! It was exciting to see and I hope that this is the beginning of the journey to Desire traveling happily in my little trailer. 

I'm beat. And a little sunburned I think. Great day :-)