Saturday, January 19, 2013

Wintertime Blues

My daughter and I both have upper respiratory infections and my husband is on a business trip for two weeks.  We've been just laying low and not doing much.  I went out and tried to ride last Sunday, but after ten minutes of wheezing and coughing I had to stop.  The next day I felt much worse, so I haven't tried since.

Northwest weather is usually wet and cold throughout the winter, but the last two weeks it has been dry and sunny and freezing.  Sounds lovely, right?  Except that all the wet weather had turned everything to mud (the only way around this is pea gravel which has it's ups and downs) and now all that mud is frozen solid.

So, turnout is limited to the indoor arena right now.  And guess who's happy as a clam.  Seriously, her attitude is amazing.  No more pinned ears or snapping teeth.  My pony is a freak of nature and LOVES being indoors.  When she's turned outside in the winter, she can be found inside her shed most of the time, especially if it's raining.  Or even drizzling. 

She's an interesting girl, my Tessa.  I'm looking forward to getting back to riding in the next few weeks when all this gunk in my lungs clears out for good.  My doctor basically said that as long as there's stuff in my lungs, exercising is a bad idea and since I'm using inhalers to breathe right now, she said staying out of the cold is a good idea.  That pretty much kills any idea of going to the barn.

Luckily, I have great trainers and they are making sure she gets used for jump lessons.  There are lots of kids (gutsy teenagers) at the barn that they can throw up on her when they need to.

Hope everyone is enjoying their ponies and staying well this winter. 

Monday, January 7, 2013

Oh, January

It's January 7th.  I have ridden once in the new year.  My husband is now gone for three weeks to China and then he's gone on his annual guys ski trip.  So really, the month of January is pretty crazy.  Then this morning, I woke up with a scratchy throat and aching lungs.  Great.  So I'm doing the single mom thing for a month and I'm starting that off with the plague.  Don't worry, I'm downing vitamins like they're candy.  My immune system should be like an armory these days with all the vitamins I take.  So maybe, this is as bad as this will get and I'll be back in the saddle later this week.

If I do get sick, then I will try to use any extra time to recap 2012 and get those videos edited.  In the meantime, I leave you with these pictures that my husband took after the clinic.  I was going to ride outside and take some gorgeous shots with my pony.  She, however, lost her little Arab mind over something in the distance and spent most of the time whirling around in circles around me.

So pretty outside and we've just spent the hour jumping.  Let's go outside and take pictures since you're such a quiet good pony.

This was the moment my foot was going to go in the stirrup. She looks even tinier here as I try to keep her from running me over.

Okay, regrouping.  Let's try this again.

Whoa, crazy lady!!

Screw it.  You look at the scary thing over there and I'll pose and try to look like I'm happy about it. Also, doesn't it figure that when we finally stood still, my husband forgot the back end of the pony in the picture.  Ha!