The outside

The combination of rain and the Polar Vortex really put a damper on being able to ride outside over the winter. Usually, we get a couple of nice, sunny days to get out of the indoor, but the ground being saturated turned out outdoor ring into one, big liverpool.

That is, until this week (ok, technically last week, but that wasn't a real lesson).

Yes, friends, we made it. We rode outside. The lesson started outside and almost ended outside but my trainer was getting cold but technically it was still fine to ride outside. I'm honestly just grateful that the precipitation has finally cut back. Maybe now we'll stop having to deal with abscesses and rain rot.

And I got to use my new saddle pad!

I was on Lionel, who I haven't ridden since the theatrics of the fall. If I'm being honest, he isn't my favorite to ride because he's particular, he's huge, and takes a lot to put together. As a result, I always feel like I don't look great on him, which makes me less excited to ride him. Domino affect, as they call it. Still, I figured it'd been a while and was optimistic enough about the lesson.

Lionel, for reference

I'm writing this day after that ride, and physically? Everything hurts. Arms, back, shoulders, legs, neck for goodness sake. Only good thing about this is that I can still very clearly tell that my right arm is doing way too much work. My trainer actually had nothing but good things to say about our ride. She straight up said I looked "perfect" on him, which is wild. He was a spicy bean since it was on the windy/chilly side, but I'll take that over slow, lumbering Lionel.

Our ride consisted of all the transitions that I need to be working on. We had a younger girl riding with us who is on her way to IEA zones. Brought back memories.

This is both a memory and Lionel