I will tell you what, nothing starts your day off right better than a morning ride. I am loving the fact that I don’t have to be at my new job until 9:30 – plenty of time to get to the barn, help with morning chores, get in a quick ride, and head home to shower off the sweat & hay. Of course the down side is I’m ready for a nap by 10am, but that’s what caffeine is for.

This past Saturday I took care of the farm, then had my riding lesson at 10am, then slept for the rest of the day pretty much. After having covid, my energy levels are not what they used to be for sure, and that is just driving me crazy because I keep thinking they are. Literally I took a 5 hour nap, woke up, ate dinner, then went to bed 3 hours later. And I felt so stiff and sore! I can’t wait until I’ve built my stamina back up or fully gotten over this or whatever needs to happen.

I had a breakthrough in my lesson regarding not relying on my hands so much – the key is to physically open and close your hips. I was trying to put all my pressure on with my lower legs, but nope, the hips don’t lie. So this morning I busted out the neck rein and went into the arena and practiced opening & closing hips and it was GREAT! At least for the first 10 minutes….then I think I got so fatigued I was having trouble doing it right and so we were kind of weaving all over. So definitely need to practice hip strength/flexibility (why oh why can’t I make myself do yoga) and work on that, but still, it was GREAT progress!