Fleck...always there for me

Today I said good-bye to Willow. The plan was to manage her pain and nausea, but it didn't work. She woke up ready to go this morning. She wasn't ready yesterday but today she was. I am lucky. Yesterday on our trail ride I prayed. I prayed that God would help me give her a peaceful ending and that I would know when she was ready. I prayed that she wouldn't crash and burn and go without me holding her and that when she went, it would be peaceful. And this morning, I knew. She was ready to go. I was able to love on her for awhile and then helped her pass peacefully, in my arms. It is awful and I'm going to miss that sweet smiling face forever. 

I took Fleck out to help soothe my soul. The weather was odd. It had rained pretty hard the night before so the dressage arena's were pretty wet. I didn't have much time, so we ended up doing a quick dressage ride in the upper arena and then a super quick cool down at the edge of the XC field to cool off. The sun was out and it was hot, but the wind was brutal and there were serious storm clouds brewing. We had a good ride. I worked on what Sandy had showed us in our lesson. And I rode most of the ride with a driving rein on the left. I thought it might help retrain my body not to grab and hold that left rein. I think it helped! Fleck was really nice. And our leg yields were pretty decent. IF I made sure to keep him supple and round before we started. When he wasn't really "on the bit", our leg yields were sloppy and rushed. But if I made sure he was truly deep and round, they were lovely! So ... must remember that for this weekend. 

We finished and the clouds were cool so I was trying to get a "Mighty Warrior" type photo. Fleck was clearly not in the mood and was going for "Super goober". But he made me giggle despite the morning, so...  I love him!