A Little Black & Blue.

After a hard night of working in the barn and working Sprite and Gus, my knees reminded me why my hiatus from barrel racing was so nice. I guess I had better start getting used to these bruises more often, seeing as how I got the fever again.

Gus being amazing last night was not a fluke :) I rode him again today and we walked, jogged, and loped the pattern. I love my horse.

Photo shoot on Wednesday with Jamie. Should be fun, we're going to do a cute little country shoot. I'll be sure to post photos.

Summer.

Because I love summer nights, rainy afternoons, laughing until it hurts, wearing boots with shorts, and riding all night when it's pouring down rain.

I finally clicked with Gus tonight. I got him out this afternoon, scrubbed his dirty little coat until it shone, and rode him, expecting the worst. What I got was something I never thought would happen. We were walking. Calmly. Around the barrels. And then we were jogging the barrels. And then, it started sprinkling, but a little rain never hurt anybody, so we kept walking and jogging the pattern. Then, Lynn came out and asked me to try and lope him through once. I wasn't so sure that was a good idea. I didn't want to ruin everything I had worked up to the last few weeks. She said to wait until she got back out from the barn, but I went ahead and tried it while she was inside talking to my barn manager.

And then, it started to pour.

My horse ran those barrels like he was never blown up. I was totally out of his face, sitting back, giving him his head as we were turning those cans, and he never once tried to run off with me, take the bit from me, pull me, or fight me. He just turned the first, looked for the second, turned the second, and looked for the third.

It was still pouring, and every time I turned a barrel, I could hear the ground squishing under his feet. But I wasn't going to stop. Not yet. I hadn't been able to do this in so long, and I was hooked again. I could see Lynn with Natalie and Ryan (my two roommates and owners of my barn) in the barn aisle watching me. Imagine this, if you will. I'm running barrels on this horse that everyone assumed would never run barrels again in the pouring rain and I am soaked from my hair down to my boots, and everywhere in between, including my thousand dollar saddle, and I'm laughing over all of this. I am running barrels in the pouring rain and I have this gigantic smile on my face and I'm squealing with joy. And when I got off after a huge lightning strike and ran into the barn, everyone else is smiling too. Because they know.

It took me one night to do what I have been trying to do for the last six months; bond with my horse.

This has to have been the best night of my entire summer. Period.