I wonder if there’s a way to get WordPress to just put “Wow, oops! It’s been a while since I posted!” at the top of every new post I write…

Yesterday afternoon Poe and I ventured to the back field for the first time this year. It’s open for walking and trotting along the tops of the hills, with cantering and jumping tentatively back on the menu today. Considering how much damn snow we got in the last few months (including all that stuff not even a week ago), I’m surprised how dry the footing is already. Anyway, we did a lot of walking, and only had one incident with a horse-hungry phantom in the bank complex. One minute Poe was motoring along, nice and relaxed, and the next he’d spun around and darted back the other direction. He gave it up after a couple strides though, and was pretty easily convinced to walk past the lurking scariness.

I think it’s the first time since fall that I’ve put his three-ring elevator bit back in. It’s a Happy Mouth double-joined pessoa mouthpiece, and it’s gotten a bit raggedy and chewed looking, so I stopped by the tack shop yesterday and ordered another. Now I kind of wish I’d waited, as he spent most of the ride chomping at it and curling up to duck behind it, so I’m not sure it’s our best cross-country bet any more. That said, when I finally asked him to trot he was glorious. He stretched through his back and took this lovely buttery contact and powered along. We had one firm discussion about who was in charge of setting the pace, and after that he half-halted really quite nicely, all things considered, and was just a complete joy. THAT is my trot right there. All morning I’ve been calling up the swingy happy powerful feeling of it as balm against the office grind.

Upcoming plans: I’m out of the country May 10-26. Poe is supposed to go to my trainer for a couple weeks, but I haven’t been able to iron out the exact schedule with her yet, so I’m trying to temper my hopes.