A cool Valentine's gift

So with the Snowpocalypse last week, Byron's Valentine's gift to me got delayed in the mail. He is good at taking a hint when I find cool things on English Tack Trader...

It's a belt! It's a martingale! It's both!

 It's on the smallest hole when I wear it with jeans so unfortunately I don't think I can wear it when I ride--I don't have any low-rise breeches. But it's definitely fun for just wearing around, like a little secret...everyone else sees it as an asymmetrical belt, but only I know it is a horsey thing!

Pay no attention to the cat perching in the background...

Maybe one day I'll have it altered to have it shortened. No more room to punch holes, sadly. But still pretty cool!

I actually had a surprisingly good ride with Midnight on Thursday, even in a slightly crowded arena with a jump lesson going on--rather than fussing about whether or not he's round and nagging him with my leg, I just sort of stopped worrying about it, did my regular warmup with a lot of leg yields and spiral in/out, and it happened. Of course. I am still 100% certain I would like to end the lease though, and I've broken the news to a few other barn friends. It's kind of awkward, like those last few days at a job when you're in limbo.

Now that winter is (mostly? hopefully?) over and I feel like less of a sloth, I'm getting into waking up early and exercising again. Indoors with yoga and cardio barre videos (from Yogamazing and here), but still! I'm looking forward to feeling fit again, and to doing fun new things with Miss Polly. The list of MD hunter paces is out...