Ringing in the New Year

Reviews take effort. I'm not sure I can spare the summation at this point in time, nor the goal creation. Sometimes it feels like I jinx myself if I really put goals out there into the world. So I won't be doing that. At least nothing specific.

Best Christmas Sweater EVER (and on sale!) 

 Our neighbors have a new foster child (12 yo) who was helping them with barn chores while we were away. They have asked if she can earn horse time by helping me with barn chores. I readily agreed. I was given a lot of opportunities as a kid for free because people wanted to share their love of their horses, for me it was a woman named Jane. If I can be a Jane to another kid, I feel like I'll have paid forward a kindness. All it will cost me is time and patience.

No faces will be published, per agency rules. Nor will I use her actual name. We'll call her Sarah. 

She's a good kid and eager to learn. Still figuring out her limbs and everything, in that gawky pre-teen stage. While I want her to be reunited with her bio-family, if she does stick around for a bit, I won't mind the company.

Today I met up with a bunch of people I didn't know and one person I did for a New Years Day trail ride. I always like starting my year off right :D   Gwyn was an ass loading and roundpenned herself, then hopped right on.  Have some screen shots from my go-pro video.

Of course it's all tilted. Sorry. I still can't figure out which bit is tilted (I suspect the helmet).             

There was a giant pile of deer guts just on that other mowed path. 

 The black horse (a Canadian) got spooked by a twig snapping and apparently thought it was a gunshot. He used to be a mounted police horse.

We kept the trail ride to walk, which was good since I've sprained my ankle. I spent half the ride with my left foot out of the stirrup because keeping it flexed for too long was getting painful. Thankfully my boot was overall supportive.

This picture is of Amy (another one!) taking a photo of our group, lol

There was a nice lake we rode by.

I used my new reins and they were so wonderful and thick in my hand. It's perfect for trail riding and just the right length too. Not too short, not too long. I will want a rein loop thing though to make sure I can give Gwyn enough length for eating and drinking on the trail.

The benefits to being around a bunch of endurance riders is that they often have the colored tack you can use to see if the color will go nicely with your mare :D

 It was a really pleasant way to start off the year and I'm hoping bodes well for the rest of the year. It was cold, and a bit snowy, but the trails weren't bad (or at least we supposedly stuck to the sandy/high and dry trails)