I worked through my aversion to being wet on Friday, when I rode the Kid in a windy drizzle.  I'm actually pretty proud of us because there were a ton of diversions going on.  BO is having problems with the sprinkler system, so there were shovels and holes dug, with men working.  And then branches were swaying, the wind was pretty damn loud, and the drizzle.  Yeah.  We didn't do much but what we did was done very well.  :)

Grossness.

The forecast for the weekend was a continuance of grossness, so I was a responsible owner of dead things and brought my tack home to clean it.  I'd planned on doing that Saturday, but the husband and I actually stayed pretty busy.  Gym (he's got an admirer!  she followed him the entire time!), lunch at a little deli, a little shopping, home to change, and the Ironman 3 movie.  It was phenomenal.  All that excitement coupled with the weather called for a nap.  Then it was downtown to eat and drink and be merry.

When we got up on Sunday, it was still gloomy outside so I pulled all my cleaning stuff out of the garage and started disassembling my bridle and saddle.  I had assistance.

Continuously fixated on the bit.

I help.

We sat around and watched a movie while I cleaned, then he went off to play his guitar for a little while.  I got a text that there was too much standing water on the field, so soccer was cancelled.  Finally, we decided to go grocery shopping and get lunch.  The Man discovered a little Mexican restaurant within walking distance of our house.  I've said to him before:  if a spot ever opened up for a Mexican restaurant, we would make a killing because it was the only thing missing.  So, yeah, a little early Cinco celebrating.

Clean (but not oiled) on right.

By the time we finished grocery shopping, the skies opened up and sunlight appeared.  I didn't realize it, but we hadn't really seen the sun in six and a half days. Sooooo bright.  He wanted to go to the gym and I wanted to ride and needed to take photos, so we loaded my fresh tack in the Subie and I dropped him off at the gym.  This actually didn't really work to my advantage because I got less time to ride that way.

Since we missed a Saturday ride (grossness), I wanted to work on downward transitions.  He was being a lazy goober though, so after two laps of trotting, I pushed him into a canter.  It was smoooooth. Also?  I sit better in my squeaky-clean, freshly conditioned saddle.  Then it was three laps of t-w-t, with a counterbend on the last lap.  A reverse, two laps trotting and a lap of canter to balance it out.  This transition was also really smooth and he was not at all assholish.  No leaps, no bucks, no crowhops, just a smooth glide into the right lead.  We did our three laps of t-w-t, then I let him walk out a lap.

And then I was feeling adventurous, so I switched directions again, took my feet out of the stirrups, crossed them, and trotted, jarringly, another lap.  My little ups were very tiny, but my butt came out of the saddle.  And, man, when I put my stirrups back on, they felt super short.  The only real issue was the leathers rubbing my thighs, but I didn't want to slap him in the side with the irons or take those bitches off.

There was also this.