There’s no one new around you

A long weekend, and a pretty good one! I have to say that as the days get shorter, I get much less enthused about…running, riding, and trying to fit things in that aren’t my couch, or Netflix. Sighhh

Oh well there were activities this weekend to force myself off the couch, like:

Riding Oats on Saturday and doing a fairly technical serpentine exercise, with transitions at ‘C’ on each loop of the serpentine. Kept us focused, and I eventually went up to walk-canter-walk for the transitions. A very good one to keep in the back pocket!~!

Went to watch friends ride at the Jane Stone Winter Series jump clinic on Sunday- they rode excellently, it made me feel both nervous and jealous! Wow what a technical challenge. I also made great use of my in-laws hot tub and ran up Cobble Hill mountain too. A good day, despite the blah and dreariness.

Made cheese (ricotta) with Ian on Monday. Fun! And bonus, he made a great cannelloni with it too. Yum yum.

And yesterday back at work, but I did go riding and schooled some small fences, with trot fence gymnastic (my personal nemesis, like oxers). I even did a trot-in xrail, to a one-stride vertical that I hopped off to set up, and accidentally set at 2’6”! And Oats was foot-perfect! YEAH!

I did tell Vicki last week that I was feeling like I needed to start challenging myself a little bit more, and I guess that was it!

Growing up is for trees

What a lovely long weekend- and judging by how much sleep I got this weekend, apparently long overdue? It was pretty busy, nevertheless!

High-five!!

Friday the weather dawned grey, drizzly and cold so I rode Oats first in the indoor, and then in the outdoor when I forgot they were turning the sprinklers on and had to vacate- my mistake haha. He felt very forward in the indoor- so much so I was having trouble with my steering- but funny enough, when I moved back outdoor the huge trot I had? Felt totally normal.

That’s the space issue I think- it plays tricks on you! He was good to ride though and we worked through some more trot-canter-walk-trot-canter transitions. I went for a short hill run (5k of hills) after my ride, and we attended a friend’s Canada Day party in the evening. All in all, a fairly good day.

Mr. Oats mid-sneeze

Saturday, we had something special planned- a gallop in the field photoshoot! And the weather finally cleared up, so we did our photoshoot, and it was a BLAST!!! Galloping Oats in the field is one of my most favourite activities. Soooo fun. I think Oats enjoys it just as much as I do, because he doesn’t have to do any boring flatwork haha.

Running in the field is my favourite says Oats!

We then packed up from the barn and headed off to the Cowichan River- it wasn’t as warm as I would like, so I didn’t swim, but it was a nice hike in and felt great to be close to nature again. When we got home, I was pretty tired but I laced up my runners and jogged out for a brief 4k or so light run…In preparation for our 7-year anniversary dinner at the Keg!! Yum! We went all out for it- I had a fabulous cocktail- the NY Sour, and Lobster Sirloin. Mega $$$ but worth it man, worth it.

Gidget hitches a ride.

Sunday was a sunny day again but chilly and breezy. We zipped up island with our dog in tow and our runners and decided to make a good day of it at my in-laws farm! We left our dog with his parents and jogged up Cobble Hill/Mountain, not a big one but there are lots of twisty, steep-ish trails to explore. It was a fairly tiring run, and I even made us go a bit further to make it an even 9km.

It’s hard being a purse-dog

Then it was time for garden picking- it took like hours actually! Croquet, dinner, and Bocce ball. It was late when we got home that night, and we sure made a good day of it. Oats got the day off because I’d ridden him 4 days in a row and we both needed the break.