O, Excellent Equine!

Even though it rained all day long on Friday, by the time Saturday morning came rolling around, the skies were blue and the air balmy! Getty and I headed over to see Lilly, who was perfectly amenable donning her sneakers and heading out on the trail. Here is a little furry smile. Since it is October, speaking of furry, Lilly's coat is starting to get woolier. I love it!

Peek a boo, brumby!!!!! I had no human riding companions for the first part of my journey. Christine was in Boston, and Bill was about to leave for his brother-in-law's over in Leverett. Because Getty was up to her old tricks, I was up and down off of Lilly too many times to count. Here I couldn't resist a picture of Lilly peeking through the leaves at me while I went to retrieve my baffling (but also very cute) dog who once again would just sit down and refuse to run along the trail. 

Halfway through my ride, mantracking Bill came along the trail on Jodie, having decided he had time to squeeze a ride in before leaving. And who could blame him? The day was picture perfect. Passing up a day like this when you know winter is about to sink its icy claws into the landscape for MONTHS is a very hard thing to do indeed.

Bill has posted this sign on the Blueberry pasture where all the horses are except Lilly, Ruby, Charlie and temporarily, Jodie. I had to snort out a laugh at this sign because if Bill owns a bull, I have yet to see it charging around the property. I guess the sign is to deter those people who are too curious for their own good...or the good of the horses! I still think it is very funny.

We now interrupt this blog entry to show you this fungus that Brandon found yesterday while I was out with my brumby. It is called Bird's Nest fungus, and what is so great about it, is that the fungus is designed to be spread about by raindrops, which will land in each little "nest" and splash the fungus out into the world so it can be fruitful and multiply. As you can see, it is quite tiny. And amazing. Just think of all these wonderful little things going on around us on the trail all the time!

On Sunday the chickens greeted me in the barn. For a while it was just me and the animals as I got my brumby ready to go. Unfortunately for me, the weather had gotten colder (not as balmy) and I wasn't dressed warmly enough for it. I was also feeling slightly sick, like a cold was coming on, but was trying to ignore it. I had arrived at the barn earlier than usual so by 3pm I could be back home on the couch watching Agatha Christie on Netflix.

As I was finishing tacking Lilly up, and was shrieking in Bill's ear about politics, Jackie K showed up. I have not seen Jackie K in forever! She tacked up Jodie and came along with me. Bill went ahead on the 4 wheeler. I am sure he could have been persuaded to join us easily, but if he did come along that would only leave one horse behind in the pasture. So he launched ahead on the 4 wheeler to do some trail maintenance. 

At one point we thought Bill was circling around again to see what we were up to, but ahoy! it was somebody else on a green 4 wheeler!

Back at the Blueberry Pasture, Jackie dropped Jodie off and was going to 4-wheel back to the barn with Bill. But, as serendipity would have it, Jackie C came by in the pick-up...which Jackie K hijacked from her so Bill and Jackie C could have a  romantic 4 wheeler ride back to the house together. Well..... Jackie K also claims to love driving this truck around. So maybe she just wanted to power down the road wildly in a big ole truck.

 After they all drove off, it was just me and my brumby left. So we plucked our way up the road, down the short trail and back to the barn.

Nighty Night!

Coming Soon: The Ten Must-Haves of Every Horsewoman/man

 (In my opinion, of course!)