Back in the saddle!

As of yesterday I am 4 weeks postpartum.  Although the rule of thumb is that one shouldn't do anything for 6 weeks, I just couldn't cope with being a marshmallow any longer. I am madly in love with my little man, but I needed to get out of the house and do something without a baby attached to me. His dad was a bit excited to get to have boy time and to get to feed him. Anyhow, I've fully recovered from labor (as far as I can tell) so I figured that it wouldn't hurt to at least hop on Rose and go for a short and easy ride.

Upon arriving at the barn I found Rose huddled up in the run-in shed with the rest of her herd, hiding from the rain. I assume she'd been doing that for the past three days of foul weather, as she was high as a kite when I pulled her from the pasture. I decided that she was definitely getting longed before I got on. Once she blew off some steam and was focusing on me I hopped on her.

One very good mare, post-ride.

Can I tell you how much I love my mare? It was as if she'd had no time off at all. Don't get me wrong, there was a little bit of rust, but she got right down to business and worked really hard for me at the walk and trot for a nice 15-minute warm up. She didn't even pull any of the stunts that she was doing with HR, so that was nice to see. Clearly she knows that she can't get away with such foolishness with me. 15-minutes was the end of our ride though. Rose may have picked right up where we left off but I didn't. Immediately upon mounting it was apparent that I have absolutely no core, no leg stability, and no center of balance. I have a lot of muscle groups to get back into shape. Happily though, nothing hurt. I worked on a lot of two-point at the walk, and I'm certain that I will feel it this evening. Posting trot was comfortable, although I felt like I had no stability in my lower leg. I decided not to push it and left cantering for our next ride.  I'll probably wait a while on sitting trot.

It's so nice to be able to say that..."our next ride"! To be quite frank I've been unable to wipe the crazy "I rode my horse after six months" grin off my face since I arrived back home. Such a great feeling. Although I've already lost 22lbs I can't wait to loose the remaining 15lbs of baby weight so that I can fit back into my regular clothes again. I'm very happy to be able to exercise once again. It feels great. Oh, and I rode in my new-to-me saddle and decided that I'm quite pleased with it. So all in all, a satisfying afternoon for me.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
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