Going Solo!

Saturday I went out to the barn by myself wondering if I would be able to a) find Smash and b) catch her.  Fortunately, the "herd" was up by the trailers so I didn't have far to go to get her.  After taking the tack up to the stalls and driving the car back to the trailers, I ventured out to get Smash.  Sara's trick of bribery really does work.  As soon as she heard me call her, Smash came, although slowly, to me to get her treat.  The ride was good; I did some work in the arena, then went out into the field.  Going out was great; however, coming back was so much scarier because things were now in a different location.  Gotta love them horses! 

Sunday I was not so lucky; there were no horses to be seen.  So, I did the, taking the tack up to the stalls and getting myself ready.  As I went into the field to look for Smash, I had no idea which way to go, so I just started out along the fence line and hoped there would be some horses soon.  I saw horses!  What luck, now I had to make sure one of them was Smash.  Yep, there she was.  Another bribe and she came with me willingly.  We had an escort all the way back to the gate.  A black/white paint apparently thought he was going to get out, as well, or he has his eyes on Smash. 

Sunday was the first lesson I had with Steph T.  It was a really good lesson; we worked on walking and relaxing.  Amazing how long I could let the reins get and pushing Smash in the direction I wanted her to go. 

Sunday was also our 34th wedding anniversary!  How quickly time goes by.  It's hard to believe.  We went to a, somewhat nice restaurant in Ellicott City.  Dave bought a Groupon for the place, so we could try it out.  Unfortunately, neither of us was impressed with the food or the service.  For as fancy a place it looks, it is not so fancy with the service.  The food, I would say, was "ok" only.  Nothing to write home about.  Good for us, it was within walking distance so we got a short hike home in the hopes we could walk off some of the food.  I doubt we even walked off 1/100th of what we ate.

The food served was a lot:  melted mozzarella cheese on french bread; i had a caesar salad; we both had a small portion of spaghetti and meatballs; i had a steak (eh); Dave had a crab cake; dessert was two cannolis (we had no choice for dessert; that's what we got).  And I had a glass of wine in a very large glass with  very small amount of wine in it for $10! 

The usual prices for the food at this place are very, very high.  So, if we were paying full price for the food, we would have been even more disgusted with the meal.

Our overall grade for this place would be a "C", not even a "C+".  We will not be going back there unless someone else is paying!  hahahaha! 

This weekend I'm babysitting dogs.  Two of them.  For three days.