I love weekends. Our days go like this: We wake up naturally, and make coffee. I spend a few hours writing. We make breakfast, eat, and head to the barn. We ride two horses each, head home, have tea, and wile the afternoon away reading or doing a workout or whatever else we feel like.… Read more »
trot
The First 100
2014 is the 4th year I’ve kept track of how much time I spend riding. In retrospect, I rather wish I’d kept records when I was younger. I’ve been riding for about 22 years. It was just weekly lessons until I got my first horse in 1994. After that, I definitely rode a lot. What… Read more »
My Summer String
We’ve been in a pretty good rhythm with the horses. Work’s been busy for me, so I haven’t been getting out a lot during the week, but we’ve been getting really great weekend rides. I’ve been focusing on Steen and Aiden. Aiden seems sound now, so I’ve been working on just getting into a good… Read more »
The Trees and The Wind
On Friday, we had another nice day at the barn, except Steen was still showing symptoms that there might be foxtails in the hay again. I looked at the new bale they’d put out to replace the last one that had foxtails, and found it chalk full of the offending weed. I talked to the… Read more »
Thanksgiving Ride
For the first time ever, Brian and I stayed in Iowa City for Thanksgiving. The reasons we stayed home were numerous and not worth going into, but the upshot was we had nothing to do other than whatever we wanted. No family of the non-equine variety to hang out with, no obligatory traditions. So, of… Read more »
Getting to 200
At the end of 2012, when Brian and I talked about our riding goal for the next year, we picked something that would be difficult. We agreed 200 hours would be a stretch. Of course, we’re aware some people ride 200+ hours in a week, but considering we both have full time jobs that don’t… Read more »
Laredo Weekend
With Zoey out of commission, we were down to three horses for the weekend. We decided to focus on getting Laredo out and covering some ground. His tight hocks seem better, and he’s actually getting a tad chunky. Yesterday Brian rode Laredo and I rode Steen and we were out for over two hours. It… Read more »
A Long Day in the Arena
It’s a three day weekend and we’re supposed to have huge storms every day. Today we woke up to sprinkles and sat around the house for many hours as it continued to rain. The crops need it, but I’d rather it came on my non-ride days. Eventually we saw the storm ending and went out… Read more »
Walking Out
I was a little tired this afternoon. Friday’s can get that way a lot. Especially if we’ve been getting to the barn a lot that week. But there was no question whether or not we’d go. It was absolutely gorgeous out. High 60s, sun, light wind. The only question was who to ride. I didn’t… Read more »
Cool, Sunny Trail Ride
In spite of having rather cushy work-weeks, Brian and I were both pretty tired heading out to the barn today. In the car, we chatted about what to do, and eventually agreed it would be nice to just take our two most solid ponies and hit the trail. We tacked up Steen and Bear, and… Read more »