Lim judges a jump

Post-Pennsylvania ride time: 50 minutes

I was looking forward to a ride today; it was supposed to be a tropical 29 degrees, after all! But of course, Old Man Winter wanted to make us suffer another day. By the time I left for the barn, the actual temperature was 9 degrees and the perceived temperature was -2.

Sure, I could ride Lim now. She is healthy and sound. But you know what? She, and almost every other horse at the barn, is on a short fuse. And not only that but I know she will be difficult to handle when it is so cold.

Instead I groomed her and turned her loose in the indoor arena. After she had run and bucked around for a few moments I had a bright idea.

Since writing the blog post about how I started running, I have been daydreaming about hurdling again. I truly miss it but I have no idea how I'll do it again. My gaze went to the jump blocks and poles stacked neatly in one corner of the arena. Well, why not? What if someone saw me? Oh, everyone there knows I run. I'll just say it's another aspect of my training. No big deal, right?

And so I got two jump blocks and a short jump pole and set up a small hurdle. Lim looked on, baffled. She actually moved her body away from the arena wall and watched me instead of cribbing. I jumped it a few times and she continued to watch.

Mom, what on Earth are you doing?!

After a few rounds she went back to cribbing.

"Lim, come here!" I said. She walked back over to me.

"Now, I'm going to jump this again and I want you to judge me. Give me a score, okay?" And indeed, she stood and watched me hurdle the jump once more. When I landed I threw my hands in the air and said, "ta-da! How'd I do?"

She gave me a look and went back to cribbing.

Later I had her pose by the hurdle. Gotta love it!