Sore Tails from the Trail: June 1

Saturdays before Sunday rides are always tough for me. I gotta get all my housecleaning and laundry done, give the kids some individual attention, do the weekly shopping and most importantly, watch the weather for Sunday mornings. And in between all of that, I constantly think about the ride to come.
So all day I'm thinking, "I cannot jog again with that horse. I will die. I've got to ride him bareback. That's it. I have no choice. Lock it in. Get it up on MRC so you can't back out..."
Well, you can see that I didn't post it. I kept my back out window open.
So Sunday morning I had a natural shot of adrenaline that got me up and out to the barn by 7:30am. Patti came out soon thereafter.
Got Gemmy all cleaned up, bareback pad on and as we were leaving the aisle to mount up, Patti offered to forego her stirrups so we'd kinda be "even". I totally took her up on that!
I brought my camera so I could get proof of this bareback/stirrup-less escapade. Especially if I might die. My family would need memories. We mounted up and Gretchen shot the first picture of proof before we left.

Things went well out on the trail. Our first trot was a little ouchy, but soon my butt settled deeply on Gem's back. We trotted along, pretty briskly, and I chuckled listening to Patti's groans and exclamations of pain coming from behind us.
When we emerged from the grove above the lake, Patti asked, "You wanna canter here?"
"Hell no!" I said, but I kinda wanted to. But wasn't gonna.
So we trotted along, Patti in pain, so I believe she picked up a slow canter behind us. We continued on with this charade in between the bridges, me trotting along, my thighs burning from my full-seat britches rubbing on the suede bareback pad as I posted, and Patti holding Grace back and then barreling up behind us at a brisk canter.
Finally, near the second bridge she says, "You're gonna canter 137, right?"
"Hell no," I remind her.
So again. Same painful endeavor to 137. Patti patiently put up with my crap. Finally, she exclaimed, "OH! OW! I can't do this anymore. I have to stop!" So we did. We chatted. We laughed. We took pictures. All a set-up by sneaky Patti.


"OK," Patti says in her down-to-business attitude, "You gotta canter this little stretch further."
I was stuck. It was only maybe 100 yards. I swore in my head. I had to do it. No getting out of it now. If I didn't do it I was the biggest loser. So I did it.
IT WAS AWESOME! I didn't fall. I didn't die. I didn't even get nervous. Patti was so right. I'm glad she made me do it.
So then I wanted more. We turned and walked back to the start of our 137 and then cantered all the way back again. Without falling, dying, crying or stopping. Boy, do I love my horse. He's awesome. I couldn't have done it without him. Or Patti. She knows me so well. Thank you Patti for pushing me and not letting me wimp out of that!
So all the way back to the barn, we chatted, joked and enjoyed the ride. Our butts were pretty sore and Patti found a creative way to ease her pain. Uh no. I'm not gonna do THAT!