Willpower

I swear, someday I will do something other than complain about the weather. I wish I knew when that someday will come. It's not today, that's for sure.

I did morning chores: mid-20s with a wicked rattling wind that hit the barn and rattled it from end to end. Yesterday's rain had frozen into a think lacquer over every inch of ground outside. It snowed lightly on and off all morning, and half the water buckets had ice rims. I was wearing many layers and so kept reasonably warm but the cold sapped my energy and made me sluggish. Midwinter bitter cold can be invigorating; this has overstayed its welcome.

We made good time on chores, and I dithered about riding, for no good reason. I finally fell back on a bullish, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other persistence and tacked up for 40 minutes of dressage school. I pushed the warmup a bit, to see how he felt running through everything quickly, and to see where our weak spots would be today.

The answer: forward. So we had a bit of a hand gallop, then a walk break, then a long trot session with emphasis on forward and round. Get the hind end moving, then load it with a half-halt, filling up the outside rein. Tried a bit of that in the canter but got nowhere, so we stuck to the trot.

When I finished up, the farrier had arrived to do the first half of the barn - we're split into two offset groups - and I was able to thank him for his terrific work with Tristan and confirm the plan to pull his shoes in mid-April. 

Pentosan arrived over the weekend, but I am holding off on the loading dose until next Monday: he gets the last of his IM vaccines tomorrow, and since Pentosan can be a blood thinner for the first 48 hours, I am, as always, acting out of an over abundance of caution.

I got home at 1pm, took a long hot shower, ate lunch, read for about an hour, and fell sound asleep on top of my book. Whoops.

Tris will go in a 30 minute walk-trot lesson tomorrow, Wednesday off, and then Thursday we will attempt a road hack since the weather is, on paper, supposed to cooperate.