Marathon Blogger!

Happy Independence Day! I am pretty sure that all of our founding fathers owned horses and knew how to ride them. So naturally, I spent today on horseback. Happy Birthday, USA!

I haven't been much of a blogger lately. Poo on me. Don't you wish there was a special bloggers' closet you could go into and, just like Narnia, when you were in there time everywhere else stopped? I sure do. This picture was taken Saturday when I went out on the trail with Lilly and Getty. Getty was a terrible companion, stopping and refusing to follow us every 5 minutes, which was more frustrating than I can possibly describe. 

This saw came in very handy more than a few times in our travels. There is always some huge vine or any number of dead tree branches blocking the way that are too big to break away by hand. The worst is when the branches are too low for a person to go under, but perfectly fine for a horse to slip past. All of them must go.

After the ride, I helped Bill gather some hay he had cut and had been drying. I am proud to say that driving a (circa 1940s) tractor is another thing I can now write down on my list of things that I have done. I daresay I was a natural at starting the thing up.

Here is the pile of hay we collected. I confess Bill did most of the work. All I had to do was smash the hay down in the trailer. But boy was it poky. Whoever coined the phrase "roll in the hay" for having sex was nuts! That would be the most uncomfortable lovemaking experience ever! It was prickly enough fully clothed!

But really, I think a field full of hay is beautiful. Here's some nice timothy, and some orchard grass.

Sunday I was back at the barn for a ride with Christine. As I was walking across the pasture to get Lilly I found a shoe. I picked it up and as I inspected it said, Hmmmm.... this shoe looks a little too familiar.... Sure enough, when I reached Lilly, I found her not missing just one shoe but both of them. Since my Renegrades (or at least one of them) is still MIA in Trollwood, I left Lilly grazing and rode Bella instead. Even though she was as bulldozer-like as ever, she was perfectly behaved and I had a great ride.When we came back, Bill had Lilly in the barn and was putting new shoes on her!

Bill likes to joke that his farrier service is 24/7, unlike most professional farriers. Four words: Thank Gawd for Bill. Because on Monday, since I have this week off,  I was back out in the woods with my freshly shod brumby, skedaddling over hill and dale. I took this picture only to demonstrate the reason for wearing a dumb ole helmet each time I ride. Bad rock!

A nice mouthful of grass is always a nice reward for being such an excellent trail brumby.

This is what my brumby did when I told her I had the whole week off and so I'd be back the very next day to ride her!

 It just so happens that Tuesday was as splendid as the previous three days. Christine and Jackie and I met at 9:30am and got ourselves on the trail. QTee had to stay between Glitter and Lilly because there have been power struggles between them before. But as long as Lilly doesn't get too close to Glitter, things were just fine. You can never take a herd's pecking order for granted.

 We stopped to see Bill working on hay in the Blueberry pasture. I keep wondering how I can ditch my job and just ride like this all the time.

Is there anything better?

If we were a singing group, this would be our latest album cover.

Back on the trail, Jackie put the saw to good use after nearly getting her face scratched out of existence. One can never be too prepared while out on the trail!

That all leads up to today: the 4th of July! I went over to Bill's and ventured out solo to the River Trail, then up through the Winter pasture, across the Blueberry pasture and on into Trollwood. We were just about to exit Trollwood and pick up the Upper Loop trail when I realized that Lilly was missing a shoe! Oh no! Her new shoes! I thought of Bill who had just put her shoes on in 90 degree heat two days earlier. I got out my cell phone and texted him: Don't hate my brumby......   ....because she..... ...lost a.....  

 Less then a minute later a response came through.

It was from Bill.

It said:  

shoe.


The story, of course, has a happy ending. Twenty-four/seven farrier service by Bill! As soon as we got back to the barn, Bill put a new shoe on shoeless Lilly Brumby.

And it's a good thing. Because tomorrow? We'll be back.