Boo. I haven’t been on a horse in a month and a half, and I’m cranky. It’s not so much the winter weather that’s keeping me away, it’s the early darkness and busy holiday weekends. I can’t ride after work unless I go somewhere with lights (which I plan to start doing again next month), and the weekends have been insane with travel and shopping and organzing (and rain), so I haven’t been able to ride during the day. Added to the mix: my borrowed horse had her shoes pulled, so she needed some time off. Wah wah, complain complain. Looking forward to next month and getting back into a regular lesson schedule under the lights!

So I can turn my thoughts to happier things, like buying fun new winter riding gear. In the past I’ve just layered everything: running tights under riding tights over tall ski socks under warm winter socks. 2 layers of gloves, many layers of shirts and fleeces with a shell on top, hat. I don’t have one of those fleecy helmet covers that wraps around your face, think I will get one of those. It’s hard to pull the trigger on the expensive insulated riding tights… are they really worth the money? Are they that much better than my layering system? My hands are usually my worst problem, so if there’s a good winter glove out there I should find it. I have silk ski glove liners that I could try under a riding glove, just thought of that.

Just because I can’t ride doesn’t mean I can’t obsess about it!