Saturday, December 4, 2010 - Rode in the Arena

Decided to ride the horses in the arena today, as they hadn't been ridden in weeks now, and the feed we bought in Albuquerque seemed to be more alfalfa than grass so they were starting to get a bit antsy. Saddled up in the afternoon and rode around for about half an hour before some other riders showed up. We decided to continue, to see how the horses behaved with other horses were around, and for the most part they were just fine once they got used to the idea. Hubby had been trying to get his mare to canter all day and hadn't succeeded until the other horses were there, and my gelding lit off after her, going first at a canter, then at a full-fledged gallop. When I tried to slow him down he decided to kick up his heels, which, at that pace, got me off balance and I took a fall, though I managed to hang onto both my horse and my hat (a true cowboy test!). I was winded for a few moments, but then climbed back aboard and rode around a bit more before we exited the arena. Since they had worked up a sweat, and it was warm enough, we gave the horses a bath before putting them away, and I carried on and gave the new pickup a bath as well. I kept getting an electrical shock, and after some exploration, discovered the outlet that we were plugged into was the cause. I switched it to the upper plug and that seemed to solve the problem. Finally I came in and sat down, and after a while, not surprisingly, got a bit stiff. Falling off a horse is a bit like having a car crash, you don't really know where it hurts for a while. It wasn't too bad, though, I actually had more pain in my shoulder (which I'm still trying to straighten out, and had spent a couple of hours working on it earlier in the morning) but I'm getting close! Went to bed fairly early, anticipating taking the day off tomorrow.