Sooo happy I rode last night

 I got kind of a late start but did get in a nice 6 mile ride on Tanza.  It may get nice enough to ride today also but its been windy this morning.  Tanza was a good boy and I feel like our riding mojo is enough back that I am ready to ride solo from Sharptail next weekend if my riding buddy has other plans.  I will put aside my pride and ask if she would like to ride together as it is more fun to have riding company but I need to be able to enjoy a conditioning ride with just me and Tanza or I won't be able to get him endurance fit since I don't have a big pool of riding buddies.  

This week has been better for me

 Partly because B took pity or whatever on me and rode with me on Sunday.   I would have liked to ride 17 miles at Spruce, she wanted to ride only the meadows.  I suggested she graze Taj so I could ride up the service road for hill work so we did that compromise.   She would have been OK with me doing the top loop as well I think but I wasn't wanting to try to ride it at training pace alone with all the hikers.  

I have also been taking St. Johns Wort.  They say up to 3 pills/day and I've been taking one.  The label has a photosensitivity warning so I suppose I should see if I notice an issue if I stop it but I can also just take care to always use sunscreen.  

I've been riding Sadie this month.   I rode her down the road Wed morning, first time riding her out of paddock in ages.   I rode Tanza in paddock on Thursday morning.  I probably would have been OK to take him down the road but there were some pretty good wind gusts, though not steady winds and I was nervous.  And other than I probably don't ride for nearly as long when riding in paddock it works pretty well with Tanza.  He is pretty energetic even riding in the paddock.  

Trying some herbs to help with my mood issues

 Went looking online and  ashwagandha which I already take was one for stress relief but that article said you need quite a bit so I started taking 2 capsules morning and night instead of the 1 I had been taking.   I think it is helping me feel less on the verge of a meltdown.  I also ordered some vervain, haven't got it yet and some St Johns wort.  The wort is supposed to be good for depression.  Vervain for anxiety.   I might be getting menopausal moodiness and some kind of progesterone supplement would help but I don't want to boost breast cancer risk if I can get through this w/o messing with that.  

Texted B about her ride and asked if she was resting Taj this weekend and we will probably ride somewhere tomorrow.   I think M and J are going to do a lot of horse camping this summer.  With fuel so high it certainly makes way more sense to pay the camping fees than drive to trailheads and back home for 2 day rides in a weekend.   But I don't think I can do that with dads sketchy health and so many critters.   I rarely trailered out to ride with Grey Moon or Shade, but Tanza is so much more fun to ride with company.  He is overly reactive riding field roads at home and I don't have the confidence to just laugh it off.   But I have been riding him more at home the last few weeks and also have started riding Sadie.  Sadie is the backup if I can't ride Tanza at rides since Razz has some lameness.   I could do fun rides on Sadie and select loops not being used that day.  But I'm hoping Tanza will be good to go for LaVeta and grand Canyon.   

Day ride will only be from home today.

I could have texted neighbor this morning but did not when I saw he had dad's p/u hooked up to a trailer last night when I walked over but he was not outside.   I suppose in my subconscious I didn't really want to spend the extra time and effort to haul to a trailhead just to ride by myself.  I have done it with Tanza and he has been fine but after the freak incident injuries last year I've regressed in my trust level.  Plus I've been dragging, maybe I need to make it a point to eat more protein and see if my energy level improves.  

So horses got turned out to eat the grass.   It loses all appeal for them when it gets mature since its mostly rye and downy brome.   I will catch Tanza and ride later.  In the meantime I need to do some fence repair and deconstruction and don't really want to hoe flower bed but do want to remove more of the grass and get it ready for some flower seed I bought last week.  

Brrrr, it is chilly today

But at least we did get about .3 inches of rain overnight.   1.3 or more would have been much better after over a month of bone dry winds but every bit helps.    I need to decide whether to plan on just riding solo on saturday or try to connect with someone else not going to Walsenburg and just fall back to solo if no one is interested.   I am finally feeling at peace with the plan of just doing a day ride on Saturday even if neighbor would be able to find the issue and fix Big Blue Beast by midweek which is highly unlikely.  

After all I do still have a wee bit of chip on my shoulder to this Walsenburg RM after she accused T and me of cheating for points about 5 years ago when I had to pull on day one and then missed a turn on day two and T didn't make herself a good enough note and ending up listing me as completion only on the pull day and placing on the day I was off course and only eligible for completion.   Well I suppose accuse isn't quite the correct term.   RANTED at me for most of a loop riding together the next year before I got it thru her thick skull that I didn't check the ride results until the end of Nov and had corrected it then.  "Oh I would never complain to RM or the org", OH NO ---  just rant at me for over an hour on how it wasn't proper.    Plus she was propagandizing for the clot shot last year.  

 Boy that made me hot.   She hadn't caught that I had a completion showing on the day I had told her I had pulled while riding together earlier in the day but was just making an assumption that the RM was doing me a favor with placing points on the day that was supposed to be completion only.   I couldn't figure out why she thought the RM would do me any special favor.  I wasn't part of the hundred mile riders who are a tight knit group,  RM didn't breed Tanza ...   I don't think the RM would even do that kind of favor for one of her close friends, probably  not, even if she didn't reject the idea immediately out of personal honor,  would still decline because of the potential blowback from some points chaser; but to think she would do such a thing for me who isn't even in the RMs inner circle was sooo insulting.