Sacking Out

We arrived home Monday morning around 2:30 a.m. It was good to be home. Despite our exhaustion we got up at 7:00 to get back into our schedule. Also, the horses needed to be fed. Clearly they are not impressed with my 'sleeping in' but were pretty good.

Honestly, I felt like I was drunk and hung over at the same time (I'm guessing at that because clearly I led an angelic teenage/young adult life and there was no FB to prove me wrong....). Ed asked me if I planned to ride and my initial response was 'no'. But as the morning wore on I felt a bit better. I sent Julia a text figuring that peer pressure would help me get in the groove. And it worked. She came out to ride.

At the same time Ed decided to aerate and lime the back fields. I figured that this was great to help me work on my goal of keeping Carmen tuned in. And it went very well. Every time she lost focus I was able to get her back. The work was light and simple as I was unable to do anything complicated (like walk and chew gum).

what is he doing? 

Guinness stayed tied to our side all day. We couldn't move without him going on alert.

I managed to get another ride in on Tuesday but by then I was starting to feel ill. I don't really remember what we worked on but I remember feeling happy. The flu I picked up knocked me on my butt for days.  I'm just starting to feel better but have zero energy. I decided that I couldn't take it anymore and I was going to ride.

I tacked up Carmen but brought my lunging equipment up to the ring just in case I couldn't handle it. Ed had also decided that it was a good time to pound in the fence posts that came loose over winter and tighten the fence. I know I could have asked him to stop but I decided not to. I figured that this was a good time to see if I could keep her trust despite what's going on.

Ed was working on the fence on the other side of the ring - it is below the grade of the arena so Ed popping up like a gopher whacking in fence posts was a legitimate thing to spook at. And she did but nothing big. I asked her to bend and listen to my aids. She began to relax and tune in. After 20 minutes of walking I stopped and hopped off. I was tired and couldn't really do more. We sauntered down to watch Ed do a bit more work and Carmen just grazed quietly.

I need to get back into a regular work schedule. This off and on riding is not doing anything to advance our training. But the weather is better and it looks good to get back at it.

Parliament building in Budapest