60's and Sunshine in January?! I'll take it!!

I was sitting at my desk at work this afternoon, watching the clock and day dreaming. Finally, my boss told me it was too nice a day in January to be inside!! So, I bolted out the door and headed to the barn to finally ride Gypsy after an almost 3 week break.

So after a good grooming and some Willie Bakery muffins, I tacked her up and headed out to the arena. First we did five minutes of longing to see what her attitude was like. She was feeling frisky and spirited, but she responded perfectly to my voice commands so I felt it was safe to give her a go. I got on and we started working out. It felt sooo good to be back up on her wide, furry back after almost 3 weeks. We did lots of walking, circling, spiraling, and softening until I felt she was really on the bit and listening.

Once we were ready, I asked for the trot and got a whole lot of lazy trotting. Ha! She did pick up the pace every time I asked her, but as soon as I got distracted she would slip back to that lazy trot. Which, ya know, was actually cool with me for once. It wasn't long until the weakness in my knee was starting to be a problem. I couldn't move my leg well enough to give her clear aids with my left leg, so we spent a lot of time doing crazy weaving. I was able to handle about 30 minutes of walk/trot exercises before my knee really started to ache.

Of course, Gypsy hadn't even broken a sweat by the time my knee was waiving the white flag, so back to the longe we went. We did another 15 minutes or so of walk/trot exercises. She was wonderful! She was still a bit short on the right rear, but it's better now than it has ever been so we are definitely making progress! She felt smooth, well as smooth as a draft can be anyway!

By this time the daylight was fading fast, so I figured we'd end on a good note and head back to the barn so Gypsy could have her dinner and go to bed. I'll be back up there Sunday for barn chores. I'm hoping I can ride again, but the forecast is calling for rain. It would be good for me to ride in the rain since dressage tests run rain or shine, but we'll see. Fingers and hooves crossed!