The Day After 20 Miles

I went to the barn yesterday to check on Lily to see what she looked like after our longest ride ever the day before.

Well, for starters she came to me in the field. I would have completely understood if she'd walked away at the sight of me, but no. She walked all the way up to me.

Proof

All 4 legs were tight and cool:

And yes, the fields are currently grassless and pure mud when they're not frozen solid. Hence the round bales.

I took her up to the arena, removed her blanket and set her free to see what she would do and watch her move. It was in the high 40's so the footing in the arena was perfect. The minute I unclipped the lead rope, Lily took off at a trot.

Loose, bouncy slow trot

She trotted 2 circles in each direction then stopped and came to me. "See? I'm fine." she said, and nuzzled me. I stood with her in the arena for a few minutes, scratching her in all her favorite spots and just admiring her. She stood with me, calm and relaxed and happy.

Took her into the barn, rinsed the mud off her legs, let them dry and applied Desitin to protect the sensitive skin on her pasterns and coronet bands, as we were expecting Arctic temps again today along with a foot of snow. I gave her her beet pulp mash along with a muck bucket full of hay.

Eating her beet pulp (the muck bucket with hay is out of sight to the right. I gave it to her after she was done with the beet pulp) She has decided that she now prefers to have her food just outside of the wash stall so she can look around at the goings-on in the barn while she eats. Kathy says she's turning into a Yenta. Lol

She got blanketed for the night. The high temperature for today is supposedly going to be 25, with a windchill that will make it feel like 11. Tonight it's going to be 0 degrees with a windchill of -17. This is the view outside my window right now:

There are two roads down there. Can you tell?
Haha...

Oh yeah, and still not sore. :) No DOMS whatsoever. YESSSSSS!