Saddle Up!

I rode Harley today for the first time since I got hurt at work. It's going to be a long road back. I started out longeing him to work out some excess energy. I needn't have bothered. He was in slow motion to the right. I switched to the left and got after him and he did well. I brought him back in the barn and saddled him up. That in itself is a workout for me as I haven't been lifting much. Thank God I ride English! Harley was being a brat as I got the bridle on too...and he's not short! So there was some stretching there. We got into the arena-and I realized I didn't have my helmet on. Ugh. Back to the barn, halter on over bridle, in cross ties, get helmet, remove halter and back we go again. It took me 3 tries to mount. The first time Harley went up and stood perfectly, but I was taking a while and he scooted his hind end out. Walked him around to the mounting block again-brat immediately bulged out. Gave him a stern what for, pushed him back, and tried again. No problem. We just walked today. My riding instructor was around and she told me, "no jumping today" LOL I said "I don't think we'll even canter", she said I may not even want to trot. So Harley and I walked around-then he got in his dead man walking speed, so I urged him on. He started to trot. I told him just to walk and he did...but those few trot steps told me I'd have to work up to that. We walked about 12 minutes and I dismounted without difficulty. I'm a bit sore, but it wasn't bad. But I have a long way to go to get back where I was. It's almost like starting over. My muscles have to relearn a lot. Still, you need to start somewhere and I took the first steps today.