Riding Again.

The day began with rain and much as I wanted to photograph the spider webs bedecked with raindrops it was too wet even to venture on to the terrace. By mid-day the rain stopped and once the clouds cleared it was really hot in town.

Now that my toe is back to normal (almost) I felt ready to start riding and it was all fine. Getting back into doing squats last week paid off and I even managed to leap off Hazel, who is one the bigger horses there, quite easily. She's still tossing her head but a lot less than she used to. As Katie said it's still taking her 20 minutes to warm up and decide that she will listen to her rider. She doesn't misbehave but she is a bit unresponsive at times. 

My legs are are not as strong as they were in my younger days but a touch with a schooling whip helps reinforce leg aids. I'd left my schooling whip behind after my last lesson before the toe op but it had been kept safe and was waiting for me outside Hazel's loosebox under her bridle.

 

One bonus on the way to the stables was finding that most of the potholes in the track through the meadow have been filled. Usually I have to wind my way around the many holes trying not to let the car bump around too much. With horse boxes and big vehicles going down that track it's not surprising that it's usually full of potholes.

Since I'll be town tomorrow I didn't bother going round the charity shops today after doing the supermarket shopping. I did go to Charlie's to pick up some DIY bits and found a couple of white flowered rockery plants in the half price section. Earlier I'd been looking at the very sad (wilted) bedding plants at Morrison's reduced to 50p but had just told myself I didn't need them when a nearby voice said the same thing. It was one of my fellow riders who was also doing her weekly shopping.

I had a good gardening session when I got home clearing the trailing campanula from the rockery. It's one of the original garden plants that I've tried to keep but it's too vigorous and very messy once the flowers are over. It took a lot of digging to remove every single root since I don't know how likely it is to regenerate from the roots. There's another lot under the hypericum that needs to go leaving just one patch in the furthest raised bed.

Yesterday evening.