Nobody to ride with the weekend, so the boys and I were on our own.  Saturday I wormed them both and just hung out for a while. 

This morning it was 63'!!! - the sun didn't come out until nearly noon, and it stayed in the 70's.  Perfect.  I saddled up and headed out.

I figured I'd just test the waters and see how things went.  We started out heading south past the pheasant hunting lodge - no hunters, but they occasionally rent the place out of season for events.  And apparently today they were getting ready for either a reunion or a wedding reception, because they had a big pavilion set up.  Hmmm.... Sunny's noticed it, so it's too late to turn around now!

Sunny's eyes got a bit wide at the pavilion roof billowing, but what did he pick to booger at?  The big green electrical box in the ditch on the other side of the road... sigh.  Guess it snuck up on him.  Thankfully, Thunder didn't pick up Sunny's twitchy-ness, and we managed to make it past the green monster and on across the intersection before the two little girls that popped out of the lodge had made it off the deck and across the yard. 

They were really cute with their long blond ringlets and poofy red dresses, but neither the horses nor I were quite up to the shrieking and bouncing right then!

We trotted the better part of the next mile between deep ditches full of algae-green water, frogs, dragonflies and rider-high cattails.  I know the water was over the road that way this spring, but for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that everything would still be so wet.  Being between those ditches made me a bit uneasy.   The boys are good with cars, but there was nowhere to go if something did come up on us unexpectedly.  And I didn't really want a bath.

At the next intersection we turned north.  And the breeze died completely.  My plan had been to make an 8 mile loop if everything was going well - there's not much traffic out that way, and there's a really lovely tree-lined mile with a couple of concrete bridges to cross...

But the flies were awful.  And suddenly any air that was moving was moving the same way we were.  The road was rough enough, I didn't want to risk trot and stone bruises.  So when the mosquitoes decided to descend, as well, I turned around.  Still no breeze, but at least once we were back onto a smoother bit of road, we could trot.

We tippy-toed back between the ditches, and snorted our way toward the the pavilion and opposing electrical box.  Neither obstacle was quite so terrible faced in the homeward bound direction, and somebody corralled the twin red-dressed tinies on the porch this time.  We made it past in good order with only a bit of hesitation. 

Back at the driveway, I'd intended to turn in, but the breeze reappeared, so I figured why not - we went another half a mile or so down the road, then turned around.

Back at the trailer. 

 

Saddle marks :)

Okay, I know it's silly, but I still get a kick out of it!

So all told, an hour of riding, and we covered about 5 miles.  And we got back just in time - as I unsaddled, I could hear thunder off in the distance.  Lightbulb! That's why the flies were so sticky and the breeze went away.  Storm coming in.  By the time I put the horses away the thunderheads were stacking up blackly just to the west, and the wind had picked up.  A fast moving system, that's for sure, the whole sky was grey by the time I got home - still no rain, but lots of rollers rumbling away, so it's close.