At the Barn #7 - A Harrowing Experience

Lots of action at the barn this week...

 Val and I had a challenging but ultimately successful ride the other day. Highlights would be going from no-left turn land to lovely stretching left hand circles on the buckle. However I left the barn curious, and a bit frustrated - why the persistent troubles with turning...

Our landscaping business began mowing lawns three weeks ago. Coincidentally - my right hip has been super stiff and painful. Also coincidentally - I'm more often than not finding myself sitting off to the left in the saddle, with much more weight in my left stirrup. On Wednesday I (finally) realized that the seat for my mower had been adjusted by the fellow who did our winter maintenance - several notches back. This caused me to torque my pelvis substantially to reach the gas pedal, for weeks! It's amazing how muscular memory works - both for and against you.

Fixed the mower issue asap, and got a massage that afternoon, with a lot of deep tissue work on my hip - OW. I'm looking forward to our next ride hoping to feel improvement in my seat.

I received the harrow I had ordered. After mowing the grounds where I keep Val, I hooked the harrow to the mower and went to town. I was very pleased that a super loud mower squirreling around in his space didn't phase Val at all. Actually, I used the weed eater just on the other side of the fence from him and he didn't blink an eye. What a good boy :)

This had been a fairly stressful week with taxes and work obligations. Little did I know that spinning around the pen, leveling it out and improving the footing would feel so therapeutic, as well as scratch my perfectionism itch. I can tell already that I'm going to want to indulge in this activity frequently.

 Val got his first bath of the season this afternoon. He loved it. He was playful and relaxed the entire time. He's positively glowing in this picture lol... He also tried out his new fly mask today. While there aren't too many flies out yet - the mosquitos are chewing when there's no wind. I'm assuming he's worn one before as he didn't blink when I put it on.

I'm really looking forward to checking out the results of the bath and my hip adjustments tomorrow.