Paybacks for Summer Heat

Today was the kind of day for which we Texans cling to hope while in the throes of triple-digit summers: beautiful blue skies, friendly, fluffy clouds, a light breeze and temps in the low 80s. Almost Thanksgiving and here we were in jeans and tees. I freakin' love it.

Jaz has been such a good sport as he teaches me to canter, but I know he's bored with the arena. So today the first part of our ride was in what we call the house pen at the farm. It's usually where the geldings and newbies are kept, but today, everybody was elsewhere. The last time we tried to ride this pasture, the cracks in the earth were dangerously deep from the drought, but today it was in fairly good shape except for a few holes, which were clearly visible. We even did a few strides of cantering while out there. It kind of scares me a little outside the arena because Jaz is ungraceful on his best day, and he's seriously overdue for a trim, so he's already kind of tripping over his own feet. Heather's been having trouble getting on Jon's schedule.

Heather rode the amazonian Midnight the Percheron, Sarah rode Nita's App mare Ishka, and Kris rode her Saddlebred Voodoo. Kris was trying new headgear on Voodoo, so she stayed in the arena, and we joined them after awhile. They all make me smile, because they kept making me canter some more because they "missed that time." Right. We're still only going about a half dozen steps at a time, we're just doing it more often. Although my seat feels secure, I'm still not getting the cuing or steering thing consistently, but we're getting better. And, most importantly, I'm having a great time.

The new baby boy at the farm is adorable. If you haven't read about Joker's White Russian (Red), do be sure to catch up on Heather's blog. He is two months younger than Daltrey and makes my baby moose look positively petite. Daltrey is enjoying having a boy his own age that also doesn't understand what the big deal is about running. That said, after our ride, I put Daltrey, Jaz and Red in the arena and got them going, which was a lot of fun to watch. Poor Red is seriously out of shape, if in fact he ever was in shape.

The perfect ending to a perfect afternoon was sitting in the driveway, catching rays and drinking beer with Mr. Fry.

What's shakin' with y'all?