This weekend I spent a great deal of time in the barn and in the saddle. I rode all three horses on Saturday, working on stretching out, and then some basic dressage movements with Baleno and Volare and, well, with Belle it’s still pretty basic (steering, mostly). It was an unusually humid day, so by the time I was done I was pretty wiped out. I cleaned the barn, dumped and scrubbed the water buckets, raked the aisle, watered the garden, switched out the boy horses with the girl horses in the pasture, and then took a two hour nap!

When I awoke, I got online and posted Help Wanted ads on three different local job boards. Given the economic times, I figured I’d have a few responses by the end of the weekend, but apparently everyone in the Albuquerque metro is gainfully employed and no one wants a part time barn job. Oh well. The chores keep my biceps buff.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday, only I rode Baleno out in the back field and took him for a nice, long, fun canter along the sandy road alongside the alfalfa fields. I hadn’t done that for a while, focused as we’ve been on the dressage movements and the health issues, but I could feel how much we both enjoyed it! He’s not a very forward horse, so getting a good gallop out of him is always a challenge, but once his after-burners kick in, he’s pretty fun. And Sunday he was in the mood. I could feel him beginning to strain against the bit. “Why not?” I thought. The road is sandy and soft, he’s in the mood. And so I let him have his head and away we went. We didn’t gallop for long, but afterwards he was perky, his step sharper, his ears up. I had that, “riding is so much fun” smile on my face.