Sunday, June 21, 2009


Do I believe my eyes? Is that my brumby eagerly waiting for me to approach her at the gate? Yes, that's Lilly all right!


Here are those troublesome donkeys. And today, they were just as close to the gate, waiting for me to allow the wire to pass low enough for them scuttle over it. With those big ears, they can probably hear me starting to not pay attention!

As usual, today was quite wet. I had planned to meet Christine at 1 o'clock, and at 1 o'clock the mist had turned to real rain. I saddled Lilly anyway. I only have the weekend to ride and I didn't want to miss one day with her! But when Christine did not show, and I thought of all the tack getting wet and taking forever to dry in our endlessly watery weather, I reconsidered and took all the tack off of her. But I couldn't bear the thought of calling it a day so early! So then I got out my wintec english saddle and put it on her. I figured if that became too ruinously wet, I'd just crumple it up and throw it away.


Here you can see how dark it is under the raincloud. In an english saddle I almost never leave the ring. It felt a little funny to be out on a trek in the tiny little english saddle. I was not sure I liked it. Plus, there was some skeet shooting somewhere in the distance and the sound of gunshot was constant. Either that or the pitter patter of the rain made Lilly jumpy. She was spookier than she has been in months and months.



These murky rocks, for example, caused her much distress. She never lost her head, but she was blowing at them and felt jittery. This is not the time to be in strange tack, thought I! The nice thing about a western saddle, as I see it, is that in a critical situation you can hunker down and see it through. An english saddle seems like a little launching pad for taking flight! But that's just me. I know some people feel a western saddle is ridiculously clunky and only gets in the way. Everything seemed to alert Lilly today: the neighbor's dog, birds squawking, a little puddle. It was as if she had never been down the road at all when she has been on it a thousand times. And she was not interested at all in nibbling! This is not like Lilly at all, to let little things phase her, and to not make one single attempt at nibbling!!
I did get to see an owl which was fantastic.
We made it back just fine. Even when she is scared, she is actually still quite thoughtful.

With all the rain around here, it is going to be a good mushroom season. Here are some Stropharia from our yard.
Interesting aside: I have never seen my brumby nibbling a mushroom!

Here is a message for my dad in Illinois: Happy Father's Day, Tom!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you a mushroom hunter - nice picture! I've ridden Western, but prefer a close contact English saddle - I'm so used to it the smallness doesn't faze me but I know lots of people who don't like to ride in one.

Paint Girl said...

What a girl! Braving the nasty weather, and an english saddle, to hit the trails! I would have not ridden, I don't like riding in the rain! I have this thing about being wet, seriously.
My horses were jumpy this week too. Don't know what it is with them. They sometimes act like they have never been ridden before! Silly's!
Oh, and that is cute Lilly was waiting for you! Along with the Donkey's!

Paint Girl said...

Hey Colleen, it's me again! Come see me at my blog, I have something for you!

katrocada said...

I love the gloom and doom picture. Everything looks like a life-size terrarium...slippery, green and growie-like. Remember, it's this kind of weather that is heaven for the skin ;0

juliette said...

Those naughty donkeys are very cute! What is it about this week - all our horses are acting silly!?! I wish I had your knowledge of mushrooms. I think they are very interesting.

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