Still Winter

Supposedly Envy is a cardinal sin. It's so bad to be jealous, right? I'm bad then. Because all week when I am at work, where the only real action I get is using a giant physio ball instead of a chair (one day this is going to backfire on me, especially since my physio ball antics have gotten much more tenacious), I am 100% envious of those who get to spend all week with their horses. I know this might not be most people, but I know there are some lucky ones who get to do it. This picture is from Saturday's ride with Bill. The ground doesn't look so bad here but on the trail it was a little too icy for comfort.


This giant nest was fully active last summer. Not exactly the thing you want to accidentally bump into on a leisurely trail ride!! If you ever meet Bill, you will have to ask him about the trail ride with his then-8-year-old daughter when they had an unexpected encounter with bees. Mothers may faint when they hear it.


It wasn't cold out, but like late winter and early spring can be around here, it didn't look all that pretty. Lilly was a very good brumby, poking along as usual.


Bill had just taken Jodie out of the pasture to bring back to the barn pasture to see if a prospective buyer (coming to the farm the next day) might want to look at her. I took a dozen pictures of Bill and Jodie thinking it might be the last ones I'd ever have of the two of them. Jodie was also very dreamy on the trail.


Back at home, Brandon had stacked the latest delivery of wood. Oh no, winter is not over yet. We still have miles to go before we sleep....well, OK, I tried to incorporate some Robert Frost there. Failed. We still have quite a few weeks of winter left is what I was trying to artfully say.

One of the things I want to do this year, probably more as it gets warmer, is learn to identify each tree and bird I see while riding Lilly. It is embarrassing I do not know these things already. I got some pommel-bag-worthy guides to help me on the trail.

On Sunday, I was back with Lilly. But it was verrrrry cold. And verrrrry windy.

Poor brumby. Down in the ring with me doing work while all of her buddies stood around doing nothing but watching. Maybe that's why she was such a crab. First, during a colossal gust of wind, something made a clinking noise in the woods and scared Lilly half to death. Nothing like changing direction in a shadow of a fraction of a skeleton of a second. She stopped moving soon enough, perhaps after seeing that the spectators hadn't moved an inch. In fact, I am quite sure that's what made her stop. After that, the tremendous wind did us no favors. She kept pinning her ears and attempting to toss her head around. Crabbikins. I knew if I cantered her, I might go flying. I kept it to slow and fast trots, around this cone and that. (My new cones are working out perfectly)


Here is where we sat a few impossible gusts out as the trees flopped around and looked very scary. But the blue sky was nice.


Happiness is coming home to a warm house and furry cat.