feed store and a good ride on the Big Bay

I made a trip to the feed store today and realized I haven't (I don't think) written here about the new offerings they have added to their already pretty nice selection of feed items. I went in one day about a month ago to find a table full of Mason jars that were each full of samples of various things. That's the kind of display that catches my attention, and I was absolutely thrilled to discover that they have a new and local feed supplier who is providing an array of locally sourced, organic, feed items.

They have alfalfa pellets, whole flax, whole oats, barley, and a number of other things. And it's all incredibly affordable. So I'm now buying the organic alfalfa pellets and the organic whole flax. They come in plain brown bags with the name of the item written on the outside in black magic marker! Gorgeous, good smelling ingredients. I use steam rolled oats for Keil Bay and Salina but have wondered if it might be possible to buy the local, organic whole oats and do the steam rolling myself. Haven't investigated that fully yet, but it's exciting that what I priced over a year ago that was completely out of reach is now affordable and easy.

When I got home I unloaded feed, did a little mucking, and then Keil Bay headed up to the gate indicating that yes, he was ready for a ride. We used the bitless today and I landed in the saddle just as the sunset was painting itself across the sky. It was absolutely gorgeous out.

We had a slightly less forward ride initially but we did some flexions, some figure 8s, and things picked up quite a bit at that point. We went into high gear for the last 2/3 of the ride. It's probably notable that we had extremely warm temps today so all of us were a bit laid back. As the sun set though, a very cool breeze picked up and that's when we went into high gear.  I had no twinging today and felt like my legs were about 6 inches longer than two days ago!

If we're lucky tomorrow the coming rain won't get here until late afternoon and I can ride mid-day. Or in the rain again, since I got lucky and found a Thinline sheepskin dressage pad at a terrific price and only used a handful of times. Now if one gets wet we'll have a back-up.