Lost keys and OTTBs

It has been a day, ya'll. From having the BEST ride ever on my favorite OTTB, to thinking for the better part of an hour or so that I had lost the keys to my car and was now stuck at the farm, forty minutes away from my house/spare car key, to having not one, but two tests for my online summer classes, I am SO tired. And it's only 8:30 at night. 

The view from midfield.

But, more about fabulous ponies that I love. River is hanging out at Foxboro for the next few months learning to be a foxhunter/all around great trail pony, and after having close to a week off while I visited Michael (le boyfriend) in Louisiana and starting to pack up his house to move here! in July, I wasn't expecting greatness. In fact, I was expecting a lot of 'hey lady, you've been gone. I can't be expected to be on my best behavior after this kind of neglect.' (Sidenote, other than the copious amounts of rain that has been plaguing GA and the usual cohort of bugs & flies, he really does live the good life. I imagine having about 5 acres of 23.5/7 pasture only shared with two other geldings pretty darn good.) Needless to say, I was bracing a little for some shenanigans like a good game of 'buck, buck fart' or 'there's a monster in every corner and around every tree' to be ripe for the playing, but NOTHING HAPPENED. In fact, while we started out in the ring to do some walk/trot/bending/warmup, I wasn't expecting much, but what I got was just like wow.

Good boys get ALL THE TREATS

Once he and I both got warmed up, I started asking for a little bit more connection and just kinda playing around with levels of contact, because up until this point, it had been just trail rides and exploring the land around Foxboro. But out of nowhere, apparently I was riding differently than the usual headless monkey that I do my best to impersonate, and I was able to ask for contact and connection with the outside rein and some inside leg, and then he was POOF! round and stretching. Next thing I knew, we were power trotting in circles/around the edge/over a pole or two, and experiencing nirvana. Or just the basics of being on the bit and connection between mouth-reins-hand. Same thing. Maybe it's just been a while since I've felt this, but I swear, goosebumps ya'll. literal, goose.bumps. on my arms from his trot

I couldn't believe my luck, or how balanced and supple this guy could be with just some basic good riding on my part. Either way, I decided to chance it and see if the same good fortune would hold true while we meandered around the outside XC course that Foxboro has. Apparently he was really in a good mood, because as we continued on our merry ride, we were walking and trotting over small (>1') logs and then cantering away like it was just NBD, yo. To be truthful, I probably should have just stopped with this, but apparently today I was just feeling good, because we finished out the session with a nice canter up the hill and some steady trot work down the hill...and many, many pets and exclamations of 'gooood boyyyyyyyyyyy' and such variations. 

And after all that, the post ride bath and tidying up of all my stuff, I managed to lose my keys, retraced all my steps (multiple times) texting Judith (who is engaged to Epp, who owns the barn), begging for help, retracing more steps, and then finally getting back to the barn, resigned to my fate, only to have her look behind the bench where I always put my stuff, yell, and then to my shock/shame, triumphantly held up my keys, who decided to hide themselves between the back of the bench and the wall on a small ledge. I don't think I've ever felt more relieved. Or ashamed. But I swear, the cat totally did that. I really don't think they ended up there when I took my boots out of my barn bag and slid behind on accident. 

Nope. Totally the cat's fault.