The Super Mosey

Back in the saddle! After spending last weekend in Boston with fabulous friends, this weekend found me back in the saddle. As I was tacking Lilly up, I fancied that she had missed me...but I could have been imagining it.

Unfortunately for both Lilly and me, it was raining. At first I considered just making it a spa day for Lilly in the barn. That idea was nixed almost immediately. I found a crumpled raincoat in the barn, put it on and out we went.

It was really raining. No thunder, but a whole lot of water. I began to long for those very cool oilskin pants I have seen in all the horse catalogs. They would have been perfect.

It became pretty clear from the very beginning that the rain was not going to bother my brumby...as long as she could do all the nibbling that she wanted. This is always what she wants to do when we ride alone. Nibble    Nibble   Nibble  NibbNibblenibblenibblenibblenibblenibble. You get the idea.

With all this nibbling, it was taking us a very long time to cover the tiniest of distances. Up ahead on the left you can see Bill's mile marker. We were soaked through, my brumby had nibbled a ton of fronds, I had invented an entire chorus of silly songs to ward off the bears by singing them (off key I guarantee), and passing this mile marker told me we had traveled..... a....whopping....ONE mile! Seriously, all brumby's grazing was getting out of hand.

 One little tiny mile? I began to refer to this ride as The Super Mosey.  A ride no theme park would be interested in.  We also saw several newts scurrying along (we avoided them) and heard several loud birds that sounded like monkeys. Oh, Warm Weather, welcome back! 

At the end of the Parallel Trail, instead of looping back up to the Ridge Trail, we plunged ahead to a short trail we had never been on before. I have always wanted to try it, but haven't because I know it is a dead end. But today in the rain, we went for it. Lilly was very apprehensive. She did not want to do it. She wanted her old trail back. With a lot of coaxing, we came out onto this piece of property. I wanted to ground tie her for the photo but she was looking like she might make a run for it.

Well, not exactly what I'd call a "soft eye." Lots of strange new things to see on Dead End Trail. After this photo we headed back to the Parallel Trail which we took in reverse.

For a brief moment the sun came out. Then it vanished again behind a giant wall of dark blue atmosphere.

My rope reins, cut in the center and held together with electric tape, became so saturated with rain they came apart. Bummer. I tried to use them as two reins, like really stupidly short split reins, but that was ridiculous. So I unraveled all the tape and rewound it, giving my brumby an excellent opportunity to nibble for 3-4 minutes straight.

Off the trail I spotted these electric orange mushrooms. I backed Lilly in and sidepassed her to the tree to get a close-up of them. She maneuvered very beautifully but had no interest in standing still for the photographer. So these are not really in focus, even though each time she got out of position I got her back into it. I mean, she couldn't care less about mushrooms. I can't imagine most horses do. This mushroom , Tremella lutescens, is edible but bland. It's another mushroom with quite an imaginative common name: Witches' Butter.

Another trail ride over! Sleep tight, Brumby! See you tomorrow.