As my body changes due to my Multiple Sclerosis I often loose the "feel" in my hands.  I usually don't pick up on it immediately since everything feels normal to me, but the horses do!  First the horses try to adapt, raising their heads a little, just enough to turn the steady contact into intermittent contact.  Often this is enough to make everyone happy for a while, but if my hands deteriorate further the horses get more emphatic, either refusing to move into contact…

I got my lesson in on Wendesday with Debbie.  Mick was really stiff when he came out of the stall so I spent the first few minutes of my ride gently walking him around until he moved more freely.  Then I started some gentle trotting, again until he was moving freely again, and then I had to rest.  Then the next time I trotted Debbie asked me to extend him some, and for some reason I had the fortunate urge to lighten…

I had fun riding this week.  I didn't think I'd get my lesson in on Mick on Wednesday because there was rain all around, and it started sprinkling when we tacked up, but then it stopped and did not start again until my lesson was over!  Then it poured.  And it was warm, 65 F at dawn, with a warm wind, and I ended up riding in my shirt sleeves, in December no less.  I don't ever remember riding in December and working up a sweat!

Mick went well, which was good…

It has been a pretty good week.

Wednesday, for my lesson on Mick, I faced a super-saturated ring since we had 2 inches of rain earlier in the week.  I could not practice extending Mick's trot, if I had tried I would have torn up the ring and everybody would have been splattered with wet sand.  So it was mostly the walk with some sitting trot, nothing exciting at all. …