At 6AM this morning, I had a hard time convincing myself I really wanted to get up and go horse riding, firstly because, well, it was Sleep-In Sunday, and secondly because our all day ride three weeks ago, my first all dayer in over ten months after languising in the greylands of not being well, was pure torture and had me hobbling around for a week afterwards. However, I also knew it was necessary to get my sorry butt out of bed and to participate in Operation Whip Those Riding Muscles Back Into Shape if I ever wanted to enjoy galloping across fields and through dales again, or heading off for weekends wending through distant mountains, so off I went.
It was good I did, as today went far better than last time. My sister and I went out by ourselves for both the morning and afternoon ride so we could control the tempo and toughness of the rides, knowing it would be easier for a certain stubborn person (not my sister) to ask for a slowdown with just the two of us than if third or fourth parties were involved. We still did some quite fast and challenging runs, and were interrupted three times by kangaroos bounding across the trail and spooking the horses, but also just did a lot of hacking along and getting our bottoms used to spending long days in the saddle again. It was all a lot easier than last time, my ankles gave me only a twinge of bother, my legs remained under my control, and now, at the end of the day, I don't feel like a zombie rider - hey, there's story idea. Zombie rider on a zombie horse? I'm sure it's already been done. Anyway, mission achieved!
(Not sure who the people in this picture are - it was taken a while ago. But the view is nice.)
No comments:
Post a Comment