In Which I'm 'THAT' Person

The weather reports are showing that our fall/winter is finally going to arrive, starting this weekend. That essentially means the forecast is all rain, every day, for the foreseeable future. On the plus side, I can stop being annoyed about that pair of sunglasses I misplaced somewhere in the house...I've got at least 6 months to find them now, lol. The incoming weather won't slow down my riding or barn time at all, really (I do own an embarrassingly full closet of boots and rain gear), but I've still got that feeling like these are the last few days of a really epic vacation!

We seriously need to sell our house with the view and buy a farm - I tried to find a picture of a storm coming in and instead I have just this one sorta cloudy picture from our deck on my phone and about a million pictures of the horses at the barn. No horses living outside these windows, so interest levels apparently nil beyond checking incoming weather as it relates to riding time.

In that frame of mind, I headed up to the barn yesterday morning and tacked up my trusty Bridget mare. Due to my jump building obsession (post soon, I promise, they are nearly done!) and the ponies' need for the odd day off, she'd had two whole days off in a row, which is somewhat unprecedented! I've been feeling a little down about our collective level of fitness, considering the amount of miles we've been putting in, but yesterday I was encouraged - little mare was feeling really good and couldn't wait to get out the gate and go for an adventure!

A short ride from my barn, we have a nice grassy shoulder on a side road, which a very kind older gentleman mows. It's about 2km/1.5miles long and gradually trends uphill. I always walk along there because some of the other riders in the area like to shame the kids who trot or canter on it - apparently it is dangerous/irresponsible and worthy of much negative gossip if they see you. Today, though, Bridget was feeling good, there was no traffic/no one to see, and I couldn't resist - where else around here am I going to find such nice footing? We had a lovely canter up the hill. And it was so much fun, we may or may not have had another short one on the way home.

I don't personally see the safety issue, so I think I'm just going to join those 'irresponsible' kids and enjoy a nice canter now and then - I do have a pony, and have never claimed to be overly responsible, so I should fit right in with the 'bad' kids ;) Also, I think this is as good a place as any to do my '2 pointober' practice - much more interesting for everyone than circles in the ring. Because if a cantering pony is gossip worthy, surely adding a rider gasping along in a near fetal two point and riding one handed due to staring desperately at her iphone timer held in the other, should be cause for at least local celebrity status? ;)