I RODE TODAY!!

I rode my horse today... I am so freaking excited... she was very honery about it, but she was ridden. Then at the end of it, I ground drove her (which means a lot of walking for me) and that lasted about an hour. It was so amazing to be back in the saddle! I almost died from excitement and definitely felt like that is where I belong. I am so content right now, like I'm back where I need to be to make sense of my life. I need to work on her a little bit, she is definitely rusty, but we will work our way back to being in shape and riding comfortably. I hope to be able to get my arena cleaned out soon (if it wasn't so damn expensive) and be able to ride her with no distractions (i.e. her food and stall) and be able to just have her and I completely connected.
On Friday I go for my first true horseback riding lesson, which I am excited about. I am hoping to learn alternatives to riding without leg pressure since that is something that my hip just fatigues too quickly to do. I am also hoping to find a job soon, or another source of money, so I am able to continue to take lessons. They are somewhat far away, so gas and the lessons are going to cost me quite a bit, but this lady specializes in working with those with arthritis so it's pretty amazing. I got a hold of a couple of therapeutic riding centers around here but none of them got back to me about what their program was about which is somewhat upsetting. I might try to get a hold of them again, but it's not like they teach you how to ride, they teach other things that I don't really need to know. The only thing I need to do is remind my right side of my body how to do all this work. All I know, is I am happy to be back doing all of this and I wanted to share it all with you.
My weight has only been going up on the scale which is truly killing me, and the hip is slowly getting worse, but I'm hoping to start doing something about, to get over the pain and just get my ass in gear. I looked at Rob the other day with tears in my eyes and told him that I'm about to just start jogging again and just ignore the fact that it is probably the worst thing for me, pop some pills to numb the pain and just go. I can't do this being fat thing anymore it's killing me, literally. My hip can't take the added weight and my body is just so tired all the time and I don't want that anymore, I want to be fit and trim and in shape again. So hopefully the funk can leave and happy can return quickly!