New Rule

If you fall off your horse while playing tag... you're it.

Because of the small amount of room in the indoor arena, there isn't much we can effectively do inside right now. Thanks to the belated construction to improve the indoor arena/barn area, the previously vaguely cramped arena is now extremely cramped.

(Belated? Well, when you consider that I was promised, when I joined the program, that I'd be starting my College years off with a brand new indoor arena/barn/classroom areas... yeah. Freaking belated.)

So, pretty much all we can do when it's too icky to ride outside is play tag. I'm not complaining.. its fun, good exercise for the horses, and when you're having to balance that fine line between long trot and your horse breaking into the lope (which makes you automatically it) you're bound to warm up yourself, too.

Of course, all that trotting does mean your horse needs cooled down, especially when she's got the shortest legs in the class and has been out-trotting the longer legged ponies. (And no, standing around yapping about how cold it is does not count as cooling down your horse, sorry.)

So today, after Etta and I had successfully avoided four or five "Its" (they always pick on the little horse, and forget that she's nimble) and been "It" a couple of times, Marilyn called it quits and everyone wandered to one side of the arena to whine about how cold it was. Me? I was sweating. I'd layered for cleaning the pen outside, in the wind, and the occasional spit of sleet. In other words, to any sane, non cold-phobic person, I was ready for the push to the summit of Everest.

So a little exercise posting around on my pony when she was trotting too rough for me to sit comfortably kept me nice and toasty.

Anyway, S, C and I decided to goof around while we were cooling our horses out, and play tag walking. That meant that we could indulge in our urges to do stupid things on our horses, as well, such as throwing a leg over and standing in one stirrup to avoid getting tagged.

Cept S got overly cocky after J joined in and was trying to tag her... swung her leg a little too enthusiastically, and fell on her ass.

You can bet she won't be living that down for a long, long time.