Monday, May 21, 2007

From the back of a horse

I love getting that call "Hey...what are you doing tomorrow?" followed up with a "You want to go trail riding?" inquiry.

LOVE IT.

M. and A. trailered their horses to my place this weekend and we spent nearly three hours out trail riding. The weather was beautiful, the horses behaved admirably on the trails and it was SO nice to ride with them again. I haven't ridden with A. since Star died just over a year ago. It felt good to ride with her. Her horse, Willy, has gotten so FAT since I last saw him. He had cellulite on his butt, seriously! I suppose that because he's an old man, he's allowed to be a little poofy.

Of course, the day always has to start with a few glitches, doesn't it? M. locked her keys in her soon-to-be ex-husband's truck, which prompted a call to the county sheriff for a little assistance breaking in to the truck to retrieve the keys. Then her horse busted the snap on the lead rope and took off, cantering around my yard and up the driveway. Fortunately, he was unwilling to venture too far away from the other horses. Safety in numbers, you know. He thought the fence posts we put up around part of the pasture last week actually had fencing strung between them, which was amusing to watch because he'd run up to an open spot between the posts, eyeball it, ears pricked forward, tail high, and turn and run the other way. It sure would make putting up fencing for horses cheap if they'd just respect the posts all on their own.

The sheriff's deputy arrived about 20 minutes after we called, which is darn quick, considering there was probably one deputy on duty for the entire county Sunday morning! The sheriff sent the cute deputy on out to aid the damsels in distress (and we were exceedingly grateful. Eye candy in uniform...ahem...) and he unlocked that truck in less than five minutes.

So, out we went, the three of us, riding on a beautiful Sunday morning. Chief was a champ the entire ride and was exhausted by the time we got back. I got sunburnt, but, a little red on the arms and cheeks was totally worth the time in very good company. M.'s horse scared up a mama turkey with a whole brood of little baby turkeys in the tall grass. Mama turkey took off running across the field while making this really pathetic noise and left those poor little chicks to fend for themselves against the huge turkey-smashing horse! I don't think he stepped on any of them, thank goodness, and by the time we came back through that area the chicks were gone, hopefully with mama and nestled into a safer spot.

Hubby even noted how very good it was for me to just be able to get out and ride with my friends again. I love riding by myself, but sometimes, I love the company. It's good for my soul, and as one of my favorite people likes to say "Everything looks better from the back of a horse." There is no truer statement.

We lost one of the Rouen ducks on Friday. We were pretty sure a hawk got her and when Hubby and I found the remains, we pretty much confirmed that assumption. A hawk eats its meal in a very precise, clean way, as opposed to the mess four-legged predators usually make of their prey.

I thought Unruly would be really upset about the ducks' death, considering the duck was hers, but she wasn't. "Mom, it's the circle of life." she said.

I was pretty impressed by that healthy attitude and patted myself on the back for raising such a wise child. And then she followed that revealation up with, "Well, dad could just get his BB gun and shoot that hawk so it doesn't eat any more of our ducks."

*cringe*

I had to explain that not only was it against the law to shoot a red-tailed hawk but the hawk didn't do anything wrong. It was just being a hawk taking advantage of an easy-to-catch, tasty meal. Besides, I added, Dad's BB gun couldn't fire that far into the sky anyway and the BB might fall back down and shoot his eye out.

"Oh. Okay. Then I will just stand out here and scare the hawk away.

Alrighty then, kid, have fun with that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just love that child and her 'no nonsense' solutions!
We want trail riding pictures, please.....