Favorite Days

This fall has been a whirlwind, to say the least.

With a lot of big changes happening in my life, the biggest of which is the purchase of a home, riding has had to take a backseat lately. Especially since show season ended a good two months ago, and then Dino got injured, when I do get to ride things are a lot more low key. 

While Dino is back in work for the most part, I've been taking it very easy to try and preserve the fresh scab that recently formed over his wound. Our rides have taken the form of bareback nature walks or very light dressage schools (also sans saddle), and I have to say, they've been some of my favorite days. 

Swinging my leg over and settling in behind Dino's withers is like putting all my worries and stress into a box, and putting it away. Sitting behind his perky orange ears, I'm home. Our bodies know each other, our souls know each other, and being together is effortless. 

Dino is absolutely thrilled to be back in work and able to go do things. He wants to go everywhere - through the woods, through the tree farm, into the neighbor's yard, onto the front porch of the farmhouse. So we power-walk all over the place, maybe trot and canter a little, and with no pressure to prepare or improve or work, everything is a breeze. I find myself laughing out loud as I ask Dino for a trot lengthening and we fly across the back 40, and then leg yield towards the woods with hardly any aid but a thought in my head. I can feel all his muscles without the saddle, and riding him this way is almost too easy. 

We wander all over the farm, we watch the deer run through the fields at dusk, and with every happy snort that escapes my pony's nostrils my smile widens a little more and everything is a little more okay. We are both exactly where we're meant to be.

Days like these are my favorite.