So many goals... so little riding time!

I've really been struggling to find time to ride the two beasties as of late. I am working long hours at the office, and then it seems that I have time to ride only on days where its raining or its super muddy the previous days of rain. Then I've been even less successful in convincing my boyfriend to come out and ride with me. I am hoping both of these will soon change.

The boyfriend very cleverly suggested that we ride BEFORE work. I say clever, because he knows how much I HATE mornings! Thus if I say no, its my decision to give up the idea of teaching him to ride. So I agreed. We made it through one very early morning session with enough time for me to get to the office, shower at the gym there, and get MOST of my clothes on with 2 minutes to walk across the parking lot to our building. The problem was that I was lacking the final piece to my outfit... I had packed everything but my skirt! Hmm... knee high boots, tights and a sweater REALLY don't work without the skirt!

Other than the wardrobe emergency, it was a fairly productive ride. Bear was not in his calmest mood, so I really just spent that first morning making do with what I had. Once we get a bit of a routine going with this early morning thing, Bear will settle in quickly and get down to work. But for the first day I mainly spent time lunging him and getting his attention before putting the BF up there for a lunge line lesson. He did well, and Bear was a good boy.

I think the mornings will actually work out quite well. I was in a fantastic mood when I got into work, despite the fact that I had gotten up early enough to be out at a cold dark barn at 6:30 am! The barn owner laughed at me. She was coming out to feed as I was packing up to go, and she commented that one way or another, I'm always out there in the dark! It does seem to be a rare occasion that I seem them in the daylight.

With a good morning routine I'm hoping to have the BF turned into a confident and effective enough rider to be my spring trail buddy! It would greatly help me to keep both horses in shape if he could come out with me for some conditioning rides. We'll see how long I can get up for before-light rides though...