I’m going all the way back to Thursday night here, so I guess you could call this the extended edition of Weekend Update. I’m also starting with something non-horsey but bear with me fellow equine-obsessed friends, it gets better.

Thursday night was our weekly pre-season cyclocross practice. This week the focus was cornering, which actually went really well and was fun. After doing several exercises we went off on a lap around the park as a group. It was going really well until we got to a curb, which my dumb ass decided to try to hop at a 45 degree angle approach. It was also raining a bit so the pavement was wet. Guess where I ended up? I got a lovely half pavement/half grass/all curb close up view of the ground and managed to scrape up my front tire bad enough to put a hole in it (womp womp). No blood though, so it was only a 99% fail.

Thursday night it rained and stormed like crazy… areas around Austin officially recorded anywhere from 2.5 to 7″ of rain and there was a hardcore lightning storm for over 2 hours. I know this because I sat awake with the dogs from 1am til almost 4am, because the thunder was so loud it shook the whole house. None of us could sleep. I was very glad the grooms opted to leave the horses in that night.

Of course that meant that the barn was totally soaked. We got about 3″ out there so puddles were everywhere. I went out Friday after work to handgraze Henry so he could at least get out of his stall. Saturday morning was much the same. Pony got an unscheduled 3 days off, and I don’t think he really minded.

Saturday afternoon after handgrazing I went out to the local h/j  show to spectate a bit. I also, true to form, fell in love with these Jenny Krauss belts. Luckily, not true to form, I resisted the urge to buy one. So pretty though. I do have a birthday coming up, people…

On Sunday it was finally dry enough to ride. I fully expected a wild pony since he hadn’t been turned out or ridden since Wednesday night, but he was actually really fantastic. You’d never know he’d missed a single day. We hacked for a while (the footing was perfect), cantered over the circle of death pole exercise that was set up in the ring, then went for a long walk around the property. He seemed happy to be out of his stall because a couple times I turned to head back toward the barn but he wanted to go somewhere else. We pretty much explored every nook and cranny of the property.

Then a few of us went out to help Trainer bring in the the mares/babies from turnout. Wrangling babies is an adorable job. These two are coincidentally both by Mezcalero, the same stallion Sadie was bred to last week.

I also want to thank Kastel for the swag. Love my new shirt (the peach color is AWESOME) and I got my much-coveted hat. It’s always great to see a company that is supportive and appreciative of the blogging community. Now I need a yellow and a navy and a light blue to add to my collection so I have one for every day of the week! Did I mention I have a birthday coming up?

I might be biased, but I think the peach looked pret-ty darn awesome paired with my navy Animo’s, my cornflower Mango Bay belt, and my HARRY POTTER SOCKS! Gryffindor for the win.

I capped off the weekend with a Sunday night work picnic with the SO… and since he works for a bike shop that meant BBQ, the park, and a bunch of really sweet mountain bikes. Totally awesome weekend! Hopefully the good momentum will carry into the work week.