November 5

Today I'm thankful for horses! Especially OURS (Lia)! And the Cromwell's(Diamond, Lightning, Diego, Shade, Spur, and Fury... Not so much Buck, Tana, and Sierra). I always liked horses and wished I could ride them but now I love them and can't imagine not being able to go pet them or go for a ride with them whenever I want to/can.

I do have a funny story though, from the last time Jake and I went riding. It was the day before he got his tonsils out by the way, crazy guy. I rode Tana. Normally I ride Shade, but she is super lazy and slow and you have to fight her the entire ride to get her to keep up with the other horses. We were in a hurry because Jake had a doctors appointment so I had to ride Tana. Tana is fast enough to keep up with Lightning (Dad C's horse) and Diego (Jake's horse) but she is a lot meaner and more rebellious than Shade is. Her feet were super long and she needs them trimmed so she was walking funny. And the saddle I used didn't have a strap to hold the back strap to the front strap so that the back strap wouldn't slide too far to her back legs and tick her off, like a bucking horse's saddle. So like 1/3 of the way into our ride Tana started bucking!! Like jumping back and forth bucking. Not as high or fast or crazy as in the rodeo but STILL!!! That's when I pulled/strained/tore my super upper inside leg muscle. Serious pain! Then not ten minutes later Tana does it AGAIN! She did it a total of four times on the ride and then tried a fifth time but somehow I caught her in time and stopped her way fast. And she was walking stupid because of her feet so by the end of the ride I was more saddle sore than I've ever been and I could hardly walk. My legs are still so tight and sore. Stupid Tana. If Lia ever becomes a mean old mare we're shooting her. ;)

Oh AND at the beginning, I had my new boots on (way different than my running shoes which I normally ride in) and Tana is way tall so it was super difficult to get my foot into the stirrup. So I pulled my leg up as hard as I could and RIIIIIIP my jeans tore! I was like dang it!!! That's extra funny because that's the second pair of jeans I've torn in two days. The day before, at work, I tore my favorite jeans that I can wear with boots. That was embarrassing lol.

So every day I get off on some tangent or story but here's the recap: I'm thankful for Lia and all that I learn from training her and for the Cromwell's horses and all the fun I have with them. :)