Amateur at large: Sunday Funday!

Here at the farm Sunday Funday means cleaning stalls and playing with ponies ALLLL day! This Sunday I didn't have anything pressing to do other than the aforementioned stall cleaning and pony playing, so I decided to take my time.
My morning started with a drive into town to get breakfast. MMMMmmmm

Egg and cheese sandwich my fave!

I then drove to the lake by my house and stuffed the above sandwich in my face while enjoying this lovely view:

Ok, so really I was just procrastinating. It was really cold out, and I was waiting for it to warm up a bit before tackling the barn chores. But it was peaceful and pleasant either way.
Today, though chilly, was a beautiful day. It's been crazy windy lately but today it was pretty calm. Horses REALLY prefer a nice calm day.

Yesterday they were all worked up during their play time outside but today they were much happier and relaxed.
After chores, it was time to work the boys. I usually ride Ducky first. I'm still trying to get to know him, so I like to ride him before I'm tired. I think today was the best ride we've had yet. He was much more focused than he's been so far and really seemed to be happy about working. I'm so anxious to see if he jumps, but want to wait until I have someone around just in case things don't go well. But in the meantime, I've been introducing him to the jumps:

Jamp is usually my next ~~victim~~ horse. He tends to be nervous when you start, as he's quite sure there are monsters breeding at the end of the ring. Fortunately today he got over that pretty quickly. I even jumped him over a few small fences. He hasn't jumped since before winter as I don't ride once the ground freezes. He seemed really happy to be back at it again! I can't wait to get him show ready!

What a handsome boy!

As per usual, I saved Rio for last. Today was going to be a BIG day for him! Rio recently got the ok to start jumping again. He hasn't seen a jump since June when his leg started acting up again. I really thought he was done jumping forever. So this news was really exciting to hear! Anyway, today was the day for his first tiny jump!

On the way to the first one I grabbed a little mane just in case he got excited and I needed a handle. But evidently, this was much more exciting to me than it was to him... he didn't even jump the fence, he just kind of trotted over it like a pole on the ground. Figures. I did one more from the other direction (you should always do everything in both directions with horses much like when you lift weights, you want to be even and balanced) and this one he actually jumped over. I quit with that since I don't want to overdo it the first day. He felt GREAT after his jumping session. Now we just have to wait and see how great he feels tomorrow...
Like with any athlete, after a strenuous day it's not a bad idea to ice anything that's been a problem in the past. And I generally err on the side of ~~crazy~~ caution. Fortunately, Rio is used to my neuroses.

I finished up in the barn around 6:30 and had a few options with what to do with my time. The appropriate thing that I SHOULD have done was go to the grocery store. Option two was go for a run. I've been really wanting to try a loop I discovered awhile ago but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's a little too long for a morning run, and part of it is in the woods, so it's definitely a weekend run. I decided however on option 3. Take Pia for a walk!