It's Finally Spring!

I took Saturday off of work so that I could go to a local new and used tack sale to attempt to sell some of my excess tack. Since all my saddles are now black, I could get rid of some brown tack. And since all my saddles now have long billets, I could get rid of some long girths. Well, at least four of the six that I own. And since I forgot that I owned a few things when I went through my tack trunks, that stuff could go too.

The sale was okay - some stuff I thought would easily sell didn't, and some stuff I didn't think would go did. I definitely went home with less stuff than I left with. I walked around and checked out the other tables only once. I had my tablemates energetic 4 year old daughter with me, so she was a good deterrent to me actually looking at stuff. It was more a dash down all the aisles, at least until we found the sparkly unicorns.

After the sale was over (and I had a quick nap) I dashed out to the barn to let the horses have a chance to zoom around. I hadn't been out since Monday, and the weather is finally looking good so I should be able to get a bunch of riding in.

Cisco hoped that if he threw his empty dish at me I would throw it back with something in it. Didn't happen.

It was way colder than I thought it would be out there. By the time both horses were done, I was frozen. My thighs took two hours to thaw out. Lemme just say, Under Armor 3.0 base layer long underwear is awesome. This was the first time this winter that I wasn't wearing them (I had on a pair of the merino wool blend long underwear from Costco) and this was the first time that I was this cold. Obviously, the Under Armor ones are doing their job.

On Sunday, however, the sun was out in abundance. The air temperature was somewhere around freezing, and anywhere that got full sun felt warmer. I actually saw puddles of water on the ground!

Is it sad that I was so excited about a puddle that I took a picture?

Phantom's ride wasn't overly exciting - it's much too early on our slow road to fitness to be able to do much. We did a total of 10 minutes of trot in 2 minute increments. I usually try to do 3 or 4 rides with the same trot sets before moving up to the next set. She was forward again for this ride, but not as ridiculously as she was last week. She thought about bolting out of her bolty corner when I tried to trot around on a loose rein at the end, so she lost that option.

Phantom had been having a snooze under the beautiful blue sky when I went out to get her. Of course, she perked up while I tried to turn my phone on.

I'm going to have to clip her again this week. Cisco got reclipped just before the cold weather kicked in at the end of January, but I didn't redo Phantom at the time because I was waiting until I got her looked at by the vet. Well, the cold weather kicked in the day after the vet visit, so it hasn't happened yet. Her hairs are all like 3" long all over her body, and she has barely started shedding (she's usually one of the last ones to shed). Next week's forecast has highs of 7 and 8 in it, and she's going to sweat just walking in that weather. 

I'm still thinking about my ride on Cisco. Hopefully I'll be able to find words about it for tomorrow. It wasn't terrible by any means, but there were some moments that I'm most likely overthinking about.

And then on the way home, I'm pretty sure it was a snowy owl that was flying along the road next to me. Pretty good end to a good (but tiring) day.