Rode a horse today!

Today Dave and I worked in the yard for an hour or so, cutting down blackberries, fighting with the lawnmower, and using the new electric string trimmer. So my back was getting tired by the time I left for the barn in the afternoon.

I got to the barn and no one had cleaned the stalls yet, so I got to work on that. My back was aching a bit, but I just remembered to lift with my legs. Cleaning stalls is good exercise! I got the stalls done just as my boss came out and she started sweeping up while I did the water buckets - more heavy lifting.

We got the stalls all ready and were waiting for the kids to show up for afternoon riding, and since there were only going to be two kids, and they already knew how to ride, she said we could ride with them and we'd just do some follow-the-leader in the outdoor arena. At first I was like, oh, I don't need to ride, but she encouraged me to give it a shot, so I said 'which horse?' She said I could use Ashley, because she is pretty big and stocky. Since I had been helping little tiny kids ride Ashley last weekend, I knew she was very mellow and well behaved, so I said ok. She said if Ashley senses you aren't a skilled rider, she just goes slower, instead of taking off with you.

Well, the kids didn't show up, so the four volunteers ended up just saddling up and heading out and riding around for about an hour. It was fun to just be free-riding around, doing figure eights and walking around the arena, watching the horses and cows out in the big pastures. I had to convince Ashley to trot, maybe she thought I wasn't up to it! I'd say that's good judgement on her part - I need a lot of work on riding a trot! But it was fun to try a little!

I took it pretty easy because the riding wasn't much easier on my back than the rest of the day had been! It was great fun, that's definitely a fringe benefit of helping out at the stables! When I'd had enough I let someone else ride Ashley and I took one of the other horses back to the barn and got her un-tacked and ready to go out for the night, then I helped bring in the horses who were going to spend the night indoors, and take food out to some of the ones that were staying outside. There's always lots of work to do, but it's fun too. All in all, a great day!

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