Summer Days Begin... In Spring!

The grass is much more luscious down in this ditch by the way....

 

Here in Ontario, Canada it is a balmy 27*c with a humidex of 32*c annnd... let me remind you it is only May 8th. No! I am not complaining, I am lovin' it. Even though I am, all of a sudden, a sweaty mess by the end of my rides and am being swarmed by bugs like I am, myself, a horse!
Cleansing the pores baby!

Yesterday, I was greeted by an almost white-ish horse, hallelujah AND I didn't leave the barn with more horse on me than is left on the horse. (Y'all should see my car seats right now..)

I jogged to the barn but called in a favour and had the chauffeur... err hubby, pick me up. I am still struggling with a dang groin pull despite the amount of stretching and days rest I take. Price I pay for taking years off my running regime.
Thankfully, warming up sans stirrups seems to relieve my gimp. I now understand how riding CAN be physically therapeutic rather than just mentally.


The outdoor ring has finally opened up for business and my ride was just lovely.
The sun was shining, I was in a t-shirt, pony-kins almost has a full silky summer coat but there were a buttload of bugs! Ugh...hello summer itching.
Paloma was alert but not spooky. Though she was pretty well aloof to my aids because the giant polar bear dog, Chance, was running up and down the fence line and he is wayy... more interesting than work.
After a, what felt life, endless attempt at getting her attention with transitions, changes of direction, lateral work etc etc, Pal finally got down to work for the last fifteen minutes of our ride.

While we took it easy to build up our tolerance to the sudden heat and humidity, we still had some nice moments where I was pushing my 'shopping cart' ie horse and Pal was pushing into the bridle quite nicely. Of which, forward into the bridle, is our biggest struggle right now.
Paloma, for the most part, gives me two options, forward and stretchy hunter or collected but stiff.
Option One, obviously, is our default from hunter days and it is just lovely so I have a hard time not falling back on it, and Option Two is a work in progress. Option Three... Forward while pushing into the bridle is another work in progress but it is coming much easier than collection. I think collection will be demoted to Option Three while we work on this.
H'ullo long seas of trot poles! Here we come. Push that shopping cart!


On another note, our house began to be built this week. While it doesn't look like much yet I will share some photos. We already have a few headaches that I refuse to allow to get me down dang-it!

I can't help but think how teensy it looks.... I cringe slightly thinking of it. BUT I remember thinking the same think about our other house and now thank the stars I don't have to clean anything bigger! You truly realize the size of your home when you have to clean it!

Hole diggin'

Forming the footings

Poured footings.