The Horse is fine, but the rider had to pull

80 degrees doesn't sound hot.  But here I go again harping about the heat.  The humidity today is 84%.   I have some physical limitations, one of which includes a balance disorder.   Yesterday I decided to go to my daughter's pool and float on a raft.  BAD IDEA.  I was sick as a dog, spent half of yesterday in bed, medicated to the hilt.  I felt pretty drained this morning, but had my balance back.  No vertigo, no vomiting.  Makes for a good day.  I wanted to start working on our goal today, and grabbed Journey as early as I could manage to get things set up:  her cold water sponging bucket, a hay net, and all my gear unlocked, a gate to close, and three more to open so our lap would be ready, booting all four hooves, wrapping all four pasterns, and splint boots on the front, heart rate monitor hooked up, saddle up, a mint for Journey and off we go.  Of course first off I forgot to hit the start button on the Garmin my first (and best lap).  She was trotting between 8.5 and 10.5 mph, cantering about the same speed as her fast trot, all systems go as far as staying at a decent pulse rate, etc. etc.  Journey did great with the let's speed this thing up a little agenda, but unfortunately by the end of lap three and 5.2 miles I was sweated through all my clothes, a river running down my back, very nauseous again, and I thought...I don't want to go through this again today, so I just pulled the plug.  The outcome wasn't bad though, we did 5.2 with an average moving pace of Avg Moving Pace: 9:29 min/mile which is a huge improvement.  So next time we will see if we can get that number up a little more over five miles, and when we can hang tight at 7mph, we'll work on increasing the distance.  

I do have a dead snag that needs cut down, nearly impaled my shoulder on the thing.  Broke the skin, hurt like heck,  and I managed to duck under enough...and at least I'm not walking around with a branch sticking through my shoulder .

It feels very much like Journey and I are beginning to have a partnership.  More of a synchronicity vs. me driving or her driving, guess the communication is working finally.  Given a couple of years to build into things, I do believe that Journey has what it takes for a lifetime equine partnership.