Good day

I'm not very good at selfies.  I usually avoid them, but today I indulged myself.

"Demons, mom!  Demons everywhere!  Save yourself!"

Right.  So now we know why I don't take selfies.  I appear to have quite a bit of dirt on my face after riding in the indoor.  I went out to Dunks after this and no, I didn't wash my face before getting my Arnold Palmer Coolatta.  I'm kinda mortified. 

But the real question is why I thought a selfie while walking Theo through the woods was a good idea?  Simple.  It was a good day, and we were freakin' overdue for one of those.

It's been almost two months of this nonsense.  Mi papi pulled his shoes on the 4th of July, starting our roller coaster of missing shoes, soaking, packing, pus, and lameness.  I actually had nightmares last night that I would come out and find Theo three legged lame with pus and blood draining from his hoof.  I trust my farrier, but after sticking my neck out like that to get him in, it would just fit the pattern if he quicked the hoof or something else out of left field.

I had a terrible morning at work.  I spent hours screaming in frustration while trying to build a data pull and get it to actually work.  Just before leaving, a dumb error showed up that I couldn't clear.  When I stormed out of the house, I had a headache that was well on it's way to a migraine.  Theo wasn't in his paddock and it took a lot of hunting to find him in a back field.  I was on a war path and dropped the F bomb in front of the working students.  Not my most adult moment.  But once I had Theo on the cross ties, I started to feel better.  The left front wasn't stocked up like it's been recently.  There was no sign of pointing or landing toe first when I led him down to the arena.

 This is Little Bit, who has nothing to do with anything, he's just adorable so I took a picture after turning mi papi out

On the lunge, he was a complete lazy butt due to the near 90 degree temps, but at least he was a sound lazy butt.  I can still spot a bit of shortness, but it's hard to see now and it doesn't seem to bother him at all.  I hopped on and we had a solid flat lesson, just me and Trainer A.  We worked on turning and how to best control his haunches and shoulders.  She had to really tear the concept apart, since I was stuck on the idea that I needed to cue when the leg was leaving the ground so it swung up under him.  Turns out I'm supposed to cue as that foot hits the ground so he pushes himself up harder.  I finally got something she's been trying to teach for a month.  Getting the timing so I cue as his inside hind hits is pretty tricky when I'm managing a million other things (and the cue is coming from leg, hip, and hands all at the same time), but this time I was able to find the rhythm and keep it while riding the rest of the horse.  Yay!

 Hello, adorable tiny pony nose!

It was all I could ask for right now.  No sign of lameness, no bad attitude, no fuss.  I went out, I rode in my lesson, I cleaned him up and sent him back out into the field.  My headache disappeared and my blood pressure went down several points.  As for my work?  Amazing how much faster it's going now that I'm feeling all zen and happy.

Today was a good day.