What is up with this weather??

Michigan got hit with Winter Death Storm #8,529 today. I can't tell you what an understatement it is to say that it snowed. Last night we had pretty much no snow, tonight we are white and drifting again.... but it's really the manner in which it came down. Can you say "blizzard"? I know you can! [insert your best "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" a la SNL & Eddie Murphy here.] Despite all this, I went out to ride Trinity. I actually got to ride her yesterday, too, but--you'll remember--there was no snow then, and certainly none was falling, either. Why did I decide a blizzard was a good time for a ride? Well........ Let me put it this way.... I spoiled my old guy (Moe) by not riding him in the rain, because when I did, he'd hold his head sideways and literally try to walk sideways. He hates working in the rain. I have nothing to prove on him, and, frankly, don't care for the rain, either, so I never worked past this. I'd like for Trinity to be okay with whatever comes her way.

And she was. Oh, unless you count the 10 minutes it took me to get on her because she was trying to shoot past me every time I got up on the fence (yes, I'm a wimp and don't mount from the ground). This is not normal behavior for her, but I was pretty patient with it since the weather was crappy and it was also very windy. After a couple times it did get old, and I started to circle her and make a loud, stern voice--it's not acceptable for her to walk off without me or turn towards me when I'm trying to get on. That's how you end up lying face-up on the ground, wondering why you're there.... Or worse, getting dragged by a foot in a stirrup while your horse tries to lose whatever's hanging off its side. She got the picture and did stand stock still for me, and got "slathered" with praise.

I got on her and just knew it was going to be an eventful ride. I didn't bother putting pom-poms in her ears to muffle noise from the traffic (a current problem of ours that is due mostly to me not having time to desensitize her to cars/road noise and also from a lack of riding in general, since we ride in this spot most every ride). She was a prancing machine, and I had to keep giving her half-halts to bring her back down to a crawling-sort-of walk. I did let her trot a couple of times.... and she was better then than at the walk, but I knew she just wanted to run. I've got a little knot of muscles in the middle of my spine from having to keep her in check, but I know this problem will get better if I'm able to ride more often. She's luckily a pretty responsive horse; she's just over-excited right now, and strong.

When we finished, I had a nice layer of snow on the front of my jacket, and poor Trinity looked like a snowhorse. I was glad to be able to get out there, though. I did have to go home and immediately clean my saddle to get the water spots off, but I would rather do that than just about anything else in the world (other than riding). It's a weird horseperson thing. I'd rather clean up manure, too, than do most household chores. Can we say, "freak"??

As far as T-tapp, it was an "off day" for me, which means I didn't have to do anything because the torture resumes tomorrow. However, I did the Primary Back Stretch, then the Torso Trimmer exercises... OH, and a set of Hoe-downs. Today marked day 10 for my Diva Derriere bootcamp, but I think I'll probably keep going because I still have a few days until I reach 10 days on my Torso Trimmer bootcamp. Can I just say that I conned my husband into doing the first section of the T-tapp instructional last night? It made me laugh in a couple spots, but I was impressed that he even agreed to try. And before any guys who know him torment him on this, I'll let you borrow the DVDs so you can see just what we're talking about. ;) Try it, and I'm pretty sure you'll stop teasing him.

Physically, I feel not so great today, but mentally I'm doing okay. Hope I'm better on both counts tomorrow!

And to all the Michigan people.... Be careful on the roads!!!!