A Turkey Day Ride

This past weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canuckistan. My family was doing the big turkey dinner on Sunday evening, an hour away from home. So I had re-organized my lesson schedule for the day so that everyone was done early and I would have just enough time to run home and get changed before heading out of town. 

I got out to the barn early so that I could let Phantom go for a run in the arena before I used her for a beginner lesson. When I arrived, I discovered that the local 4H group was starting up again, which meant that the arena was not usable. There had been no notification of this, despite me asking a couple of people over the last few weeks when they would be starting up again. I was not impressed.

I ended up having to cancel the two beginner kids, but the first rider (an adult who leases) was already on her way out. 

Since I was there, I decided that I would go for a ride with her. I wasn't really dressed for it - I was wearing jeans, I had my glasses on instead of contact lenses, and as I went out to catch my horse I realized I wasn't wearing a sports bra, and was in fact wearing one of the least supportive bras I own. So it was going to be an easy ride. 

It was a chilly morning, only a couple degrees above freezing, with a threat of light rain all day. I threw my chaps on over my jeans - I had no idea how silly Cisco would be feeling in the cool weather. That caused another problem - I couldn't bend my knee enough to get my foot into the stirrup when I was getting on. I had to unzip the leg up to my knee and then find someone on the ground to zip it back up again once I was on. It was not a graceful mounting. 

We hacked around in the big field. Cisco was very well behaved and pretty relaxed. I wasn't really asking much of him - my position reverted back to my hunter/jumper days with my shoulders rounded and a forward lean to try to minimize the bounce to my boobage. Sitting trot was definitely out of the equation. 

The other person hadn't ridden her lease pony outside much so we decided to go for a walk down to the neighbours driveway. I can't take Cisco on the gravel road as he is very owie if he steps on a rock (barefoot) so the grass on the driveway is perfect for him.

Cisco hasn't been down that route for a few weeks. He was happy to let the other horse lead and walk along on a loose rein. He didn't even spook at the shed like he normally does, and when the other horse did a splat spook he just kept walking.

It was a nice relaxed ride. And the best part was that we got back to the barn just as the rain decided to start coming down. Perfect timing. 

And I only had to grab my boobs once when Cisco took a bad step.