Cautiously Optimistic

I'm hoping the worst is over. I've been relatively pain free since Thursday, so "the thing" has hopefully migrated far enough not to be an issue. (That is what I am telling myself, yep, yep, yep...). Phebes hadn't been out at all for several days so we just did a 1 mile warm up, did some long hills trotting, and a few short hill sprints, 1 mile back home for the cool down. Even though the ride was short it seemed to challenge her with the use of the canter intermittently. She was pulsing at 83 even though I had hand walked her in on foot the last couple hundred yards. She was putting off a lot of heat. I had made a point of having a sponge bucket in the stall this time, and sponged those big veins on the inside of her hind legs, under her belly, and over the jugular. She came down to 58 in about seven minutes. The wind gusts were incredible out there and I kept getting the creepy crawlys that a limb or tree was going to blow down on or near us. Thought that perhaps I should heed intuition for a change since when I don't it usually doesn't pay off. Now if the wind will stop blowing and we don't get another soaking rain tonight the trail should be in decent condition tomorrow for some milage. ~E.G.