I meant to break this into a million little posts and might still do that.  Too much fodder!

On my ride on Friday, I was walking the Kid on the dirt road when a fellow walked from out under the pergola at the driveway across the street.  He proceeded to walk on the dirt road.  I'm not normally friendly to strangers beyond a smile and a hello, but something about the apron, the baseball cap and the smile made me chatty.

Or it might have been, "That's a nice beast you've got there."

Gah.  Quickest way to get me to talk:  say something pleasant about the Archer.

Anyways, I won't bore you will the details (chef, rode in Australia, etc), but I will say:  Archie stood like a fucking saint.  The legit fly spray is amazingly legit, so he wasn't being bothered by bugs, but he's also had an issue previously when asked to stand for long moments.  I was so proud.

We spent the majority of the ride working on our extensions at the trot.  I've always been taught that this is something you ask for rarely, because it's an awful lot of work with a big potential for muscle injury.  So we kept it to about fifteen strides and about three attempts.  The first attempt resulted in a rolling canter, which I have no complaints about.  I improved my method of asking for the second and third attempts, which were much better.  We never got a full extension, but we had some extension and a beautiful working trot.

During the turn-around portion, I collected that trot, sat firm in my right seat bone and asked for a deep turn on that right shoulder.  The first time, we didn't have enough oomph and he broke.  The second, though, reassured me that my horse has been playing me for a sucker and I need to ride better.

It rained on Saturday.

A Beautiful Mess app, hipster glasses and a skirt too short for work.

Sunday, after photographing the animals and playing soccer stupidly, I went out to ride.  There was still some rain, so I got a little.. creative.

Soccer jersey, shorts, tevas, two lunge lines (since I couldn't find my dressage reins) and his halter.  Keeping it classy!

I still stretch!

When I'd gotten to the barn, Archie was standing in the feed room, eating Skinny Guy's beet pulp.  After pulling him out, I saw that there was blood on the floor.

Mystery blood.

Beet pulp bucket.

Messy eater.

I checked both horses over - cleaning hooves, checking coronet bands, checking legs and lower abdomens - nothing.  I called BO, who said that she was on her way over anyways.  She wasn't as concerned about the blood as I was, but I told her that I'd be more comfortable if the door had a functional lock.  So she's working on that.

And completely off the topic of pony time, but back on to another favorite subject:  food.  I stuck this at the end so you can gleefully skip it.

Since my husband was sick a couple of weeks ago, I've been given his blessing to cook more and cook random.  His appetite hasn't returned for the food that he was sick with.  I don't have any photos of this stuff, but in the past week, I have made:  quinoa with a sauteed onion broth, veggie burgers from SCRATCH! (I watched him make salmon patty things and replicated the process with less-dead stuff), and zucchini lasagna.  It's amazing being able to look up recipes and think about the process of cooking and changing things to suit us.  He's also taken to eating fish more, which, on the sliding scale of animal ethics, I find slightly more permissible than eating chickens.  Who have personalities.  Granted, the two goldfish that my mother had for a decade also had slightly discernible personalities, as one was more aggressive and one more laid back.  Still.  It's like a small step for my secret plot to turn my husband into a vegetarian.