Good Day

No pictures today as I sent my wee Sony off with John on his trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and my nice Cannon is too bulky to fit in my pocket. A shame because India was really good today and I would love to show, but words will have to do.

I haven't ridden her in two weeks because I have to work for a living and thus winter weekdays are out. Not enough daylight after work and last Sunday I didn't feel much like schooling; I just wanted to get on a horse and not worry about being right, so I opted to ride Asia and she gave me just the ride I wanted.

Since the Stubben hurt India, she's been a Princess Grump when grooming and tacking up. I can't say as I blame her as she realized that the saddle was going to hurt and I feel awful that I didn't catch on sooner, but she's had three or four rides now in the Wintec and she's catching on now that the saddle isn't painful anymore. Last time I tacked up she acted as though she was going to nip me, but didn't when I growled at her and she found my elbow in the way. She tried several times, but it was half hearted. Today as soon as I started brushing her she did it again. I growled, she quit, and she never tried again. I think she's figured it out that the painful saddle is no more.

We had a lovely ride in the arena. She has really processed what we learned with Kathleen Lindley last month and is sweeping her forelegs in her turns on the haunches. I hope to return next month for another lesson and see what other miracles Kathleen can work. I think India's turns as a whole have improved, and we did a lot of trotting and cantering in patterns with Elaine, Sarah, and Katie. India listened nicely and we had some lovely canter transitions, both up and down, as well as some great working trots and circles. I rode for 90 minutes and finished up so pleased with my pony.

The sun was shining and all I needed was a sweatshirt to stay warm, although when I ran this morning at 8:30 it was only 30 degrees and I was bundled up. I rode the Peugeot mid morning from Cherry Street Cycles to Jittery Joe's and back and left it with Damon at CSC for some more fine tuning. He's replacing the front derailleur cable and taking off the (big, ugly and very shiny) chain guard that came as original equipment back in 1973. It's big, it's ugly and it makes a rattling noise when I pedal. The bike was pretty much stock when I bought it, but I'm making some changes. I had the original brake levers swapped out as they were too big for my hands to comfortably grasp and pull and safety is important to me. I like to be able to stop suddenly if I need to and the new brake levers are sized smaller and I can grab hold quickly and pull. So, once that first change was made, it's easier to make more, like taking off the big, ugly and shiny chain guard. And just think how much lighter the bike will be! ***

***if you're not a big cyclist, you may not know that there are fanatical cyclists who will buy the lightest frame and weigh all the components in search of riding a bike that weighs next to nothing and can easily be picked up by your Great Aunt Ethyl who's 94 years old and shrunk to the size of your six year old cousin. The Peugeot is a heavy steel frame. It would be scorned by the weight weenies, so taking off the chain guard as a way to reduce weight is really silly because this bike will never be a light weight. Never. But it's a cool bike still.

I watched Shaun of the Dead tonight and laughed myself silly.