I don't know if it's the weather or the drive or the holiday season tapping my reserve, but I couldn't coerce myself into going to the barn last night.  I went straight home and threw on an over-sized tank top with some leggings and looked up Christmas gifts online while the cats cuddled with me.  It was blissful and relaxing and I appreciated spending those extra two hours on my couch.  Awesome juxtaposition with the last post being a fitness book review, right?  Speaking of which - Carly has offered up her copy of said book to any brave soul that might be more inclined to get a gym membership.

So my last ride was Sunday night.  I ventured out to the barn at about 4 or so.  It was cold and misting and I thought I would be the only one at the barn.  OR was there and had just finished lunging her horse.  We talked a little bit about jumping and saddles and her recent lesson with my former dressage instructor.  OR really likes her, but I'm not convinced that I want to take lessons from her again.  Hope springs eternal, T3.

She was still riding by the time I got Archie, groomed and tacked up.  I gave him a little bit of a longer warm up because of the gross weather and wet footing and then worked on our trot and canter.  My posting has gotten worlds better, but I find that I can only achieve it if I allow my own legs to warm up first.  So the habit has been to trot around on a loose rein while posting sky-high, and then collect both of us.  My cheap little Saxon field boots have been amazing and comfortable and actually quite helpful in the heels-down-calves-gripping-low-posting thing.

Per the last lesson with T3, I've been working a little bit on getting Archie to maintain when we canter the contact and roundness from our trot.  This isn't easy for the Kid, who would rather llama around at the canter, with his spitting head in my lap.  So our canter work has been brief and praise has been pouring.  Muscle development is hard.

Found this on Pinterest.  It came from some tumblr, so I couldn't list the originating author if I wanted to.

I finished my ride by giving OR my saddle to try.  She's roughly my height, no idea where her legs start, but she's riding in a 16'' saddle.  My Collegiate is a 17'', so she wanted to see how it felt.  Girl might actually need a 17.5".  She's also got a Collegiate dressage saddle, but doesn't feel it's big enough for her either.  I told her that I would bring my old Wintec Bates out to see if it fit better.

Other little tidbits:  Archie rejected orange-flavored sugarfree generic Metamucil.  BM said that he is the absolute first horse she's ever met that wouldn't eat it.  I purchased some regular-flavor sugarfree generic and we'll try again at the start of next month.  If that doesn't work, there is another version that's a different texture and has a little bit of sucrose in it.  And if that doesn't work, we'll get the damn Smartpak crap.

I also recently measured wood. Our little crossrail is just shy of 2 feet, which makes me feel amazing.  And I verified our wanky standards:  they start at 1 foot and have a hole every six inches.  Woo.