I'm a Big Girl now!

Dee is officially beginning to be a grown-up! Today, she got on the trailer and let me walk around back to put the butt bar up. I know, I know, it doesn't sound like much, but she usually just gets back off the trailer as soon as I walk around back. I don't think she's being bad, I think she just figures "well, you USUALLY ask me to get off when you go round back...". It took me quite a few tries, but I finally convinced her that she didn't have to get off when I left her. Even better was that when we left Nancy's to go home, she marched onto the trailer and stood like a soldier while I put the back up. What a smart girl!
Our ride today was excellent, too. We had 20 minutes of no fighting and forward going. It was absolute bliss and I quit after 20ish minutes because she'd been great and she was absolutely DRIPPING with sweat. It was around 90 with enough humidity to make you think the world somehow ended up underwater, so I decided not to make her keep going when she'd been an angel. I know Nancy would have wanted me to trot over a bunch of cavaletti, but the mare was just SO good and SO sweaty... I couldn't do that to her.

Back (on track?)

Well, today I had a lesson scheduled with Nancy, but I awoke this morning to a VERY sore back. It took me about 10 minutes just to roll myself out of bed. I remained optimistic, thinking that maybe a few ibuprofin would help, but it really didn't. Luckily, Nancy was happy to get on and ride for me, since I figured that even if I got myself INTO the saddle, I would a)be useless and b)probably not be able to get back OUT of the saddle later. Bummer.
It was really cool to be able to watch Dee go, though, and I'm glad that now Nancy has a feel for what I'm sitting on. She rode for about 40 minutes or so, just walk, trot, canter and then some cavaletti. It took about 15 minutes for Dee to settle in, and then she was very good. She's also quite fancy! I never knew! And, she's a VERY cute jumper (she had to over-jump all of the cavaletti).
I'm going to truck her back up to Nancy's Thursday to ride her around a bit. Nancy will be at Millbrook, but she said to just go up and use the ring. I'm hoping I can get there, because I had some issues on the way home today. There appears to be something weird going on with the trailer breaks... they started breaking of their own volition. I'm going to try some electrical grease on the connector, because I think my connection may be the issue.
Now, my back has been pretty good lately. I'm not entirely sure what I did to make it hurt so badly, but I assume it's just something that's going to happen now and again. One of my friends just got her massage license, so I'm thinking of going to her soon. I mean, it can't hurt. Today was pretty terrible, pain-wise, and I even had my leg go numb at one point on the way home. Not good. It's a little better tonight. I've been wearing my back on track brace all day, which is a godsend, and I've taken lots of ibuprofin. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to my usual low-grade pain.