I Rode Today!!!

In my NEW ARENA!!!

Okay...so maybe it doesn't have special, manicured footing (although my dear husband DID mow it short for me in a perfect 20x40 meter rectangle) and maybe there are no dressage letters (but it DOES have tiny, orange surveying flags marking the corners and well....okay....I guess there isn't a fence, or any boundary at all, actually, aside from the visual of short grass vs. tall grass.

But really, for me, it was extremely helpful to have a boundary line on a specific riding area. Helped me firmly guide Arabee where I wanted her, and where I didn't, and it helped me make my circles more or less round.

It was definitely a lot of fun - even if I had to rush because I only had an hour from the time Matt said "well, do you want to go ahead and ride, even though there isn't much time?" and when he had to leave to go back into work again. Hurry - take off my boots, peel off the sweaty jeans, and try to pour myself into my breeches, put the boots back on, catch Arabee, get the saddle area clean, tack up, pick hooves, re-adjust the stirrups, realize that my helmet was back in the house (and also needed re-adjusting), and mount up....with less than 20 minutes left to actually ride, really more like 15, because I still had to untack and rinse my horse off (who, even though it was such a short ride, had ACTUALLY sweated enough to warrant needing hosed off).

Anyway...it was a fun ride, short as it was :-)