After almost two weeks of packing, moving, and settling into my new place, I was itching to get back to my regular riding routine.  So I was thrilled when I got home from work on Friday to find the weather clear and my animals comfortably settled into our new place.  Off I went to the barn to see my girl.  It was a bit of a questionable start to the afternoon – I arrived and no more than got out of the car to a sudden downpour of showers.  Okaaaayyyyy…. alrighty, well I’m tough and I won’t melt, right?  So I went to the back pasture and started calling Tiny.  Of course she had suddenly become deaf and refused to even turn her head.  Guess she didn’t miss me much over the last two weeks.  Ok, so off I went into the pasture through the rain to fetch her (she had just been turned out and was in no way coming in on her own terms).  When I finally reached her, I saw a sight I certainly wasn’t prepared for:  my normally water-phobic mare standing in an enormous puddle of 5 inch deep rainwater, wildly munching at the submerged grass .  There was NO WAY she was coming to me, and she called my bluff.  There was NO WAY I was going to trek through shin high water to get her.  We had a standoff, I won, and eventually I finally got to ride for what felt like the first time in ages.  In the end, it was a good ride.  It felt so good to be back in the saddle again.  There is nothing in the world quite like the view from a horse’s back.