Visitors and Progress

Well, the foot surgery went well, and I'm back on my feet. Kind of. I still have a pretty significant limp and quite a bit of swelling. I'm definitely not ready to ride, at least not more than just bareback poking around. I was already having horse withdrawals by the end of my first week at home, but luckily I was provided with a convenient excuse to go to the barn. A friend came to visit!

I hadn't met Abigail before, but she is a member of a horse forum I've been on for a long time. We hit it off well, and she got to meet a lot of my friends over the course of her 24-hour stay in Austin. We spent the morning of July 9 at the barn visiting Miss Halo, and got some fun pictures.

It is always fun to see other people ride your horse. Halo is definitely a tester. She makes sure every new rider is going to MAKE her do something. If she thinks she can get away with not listening, she'll try it. She and Abigail had an initial discussion about going forward, but once they got that out of the way (with a rein smack and a couple of little butt hops), Halo was a good girl.

These are a couple of my favorite riding pictures of them from that day:





Abigail also found Halo's special itchy spot:





I was able to ride, but only for a few minutes just walking and a little trotting. Halo figured out very quickly that my right foot didn't really work, so I didn't have much leverage if she wanted to bulge to the right and run through my leg. It still felt great to be on her, though - it was the first time all week that I was able to move faster than a slow hobble.

It was a fun visit, and we had a great time! I have more to post soon about the work that Halo's leaser has been doing with her. They are making tons of progress, and I'm hoping I can get out to watch them work in the next couple of weeks.