I was scheduled to feed at the barn, so I set my alarm for way-too-fucking-early-for-Saturday and headed out.  I grained the other two geldings and gave Archie a couple handfuls while I tacked him up.  I wanted to do a quick workout because I knew he was hungry, so we had a fast warm-up and started working on our downward transitions.  This time, I had the crop!  After the first few taps in the transition, he understood that he wasn't allowed to go from springy forward trot immediately to a dead snail.  I got a big, nice swinging walk after that.

I took him on the dirt road on the other side of the property and asked for more trot.  And then canter.  And we had the best, weird canter/hand gallop for the length of that road.  Only one "oh, shit" moment.  :)

Went home and the hubs and I decided to go to the gym.  We weren't there very long and he overdid it.  (He says that it's normal for athletes to push themselves to the point of vomiting.  I think that's completely unnecessary.)

He recovered after passing out on the living room floor and eating a cupcake.  We went out for lunch and ran some errands: a stack of books from the li-barry, browsing at Target and Ross and Verizon Wireless.  Bought nothing!

I fed the horses again that evening and then we met up for drinks and dinner with my new friend from last weekend.  I really like this chick.  She's funny and we have a lot in common and I hope to hang out with her more.  She's actually got an octopus on her right side and a peacock/gun on her feet.  She showed me all this in the bathroom and when we got back to the table, I immediately asked my husband what I wanted on my right side.  He responded: octopus.  I just thought that was neat.

Oh, god.  No smart, Beka.  No smart.

We got up and cycled.  I begged for a slower pace, but we still did our neighborhood route in under and hour.  The only perk was that he let me lead for a while.  I vegged for about an hour after that and went and rode the pony.

He's getting progressively better.  I trust him more.  So, I push him more.  He was excellent and I've really felt that I've worked him harder than normal since the last chiro visit, so we finished the distance ride (I have two types of rides now: distance and downward transitions) with a walk around the trail around the property.  BB, who previously offered to ride him in the woods if I was too afraid (bitch), pulled up behind us as I was opening the gate to get back in the pasture.  You know, from the saddle.  Because we're good like that.  :)

BB actually offered to pay me to either pull her guy's mane or teach her how to pull.  I'm not a giant bitch - I'll gladly teach her.  That doesn't mean that I'll do the whole thing.  I'll probably get her started and sit back and watch or something.  I know she's thinking about moving him to the barn she started working at across the river, so I think this has something to do with that.  She admitted that he was behind on vaccines, coggins and his dental because BO wasn't keeping up with it either.  I was a bit horrified, but both of those horses are now UTD.

After riding, I went back home and vegged on the couch with the hubby for about half an hour.  

And then I had the first soccer game of the season!  If you remember, I was really stressing out about this new team.  Man, I have got to have a little faith in my friends.  Mel, the captain who asked me to join, is not going to allow the sorts of things that happened last season happen on this team.  The whole atmosphere was completely different.  I don't know how to describe it exactly - the women on my team are amazing, know they're amazing, but they aren't assholes about it.  It's not like the other team, where in order for us to be amazing, everyone else had to suck.  We won our first game from 7-2 and I actually got some real play time in.  I ran my little ass off (which is much improved from last season, too).  One of the girls has offered to teach me things on off days.  It's like going from a high-strung and angry horse to a school master, gladly willing to pack you around the fences on your way to a blue.

I also learned from Mel that my previous captains used to request that people try to hold off on subbing if I was going to be the person going in.  :(

After the game, I went to Publix and picked up antibiotics for Savannah, who has another UTI.  Poor girl.  She didn't eat on Saturday morning, but I thought she was just being a bitch about the food.  Then she had an accident.  

And, finally, I closed the night with an eight mile run, a 32 oz Miller Light and some nachos.