You see the oddest things at Wal-Mart...

Yep, that's a duck.  In Wal-mart.

Wearing a duck diaper, no less

Candy the Duck

 

 She has her own FaceBook page, if you feel like looking her up.

We rode for about 2 1/2 hours this afternoon.  J wanted to check the fence in his big alfalfa field before he turned the cows out, and then we made a 6 mile loop out and around.  It was windy as all get-out, and Rufus was an absolute squirrel.  He made one big lunge while T was holding Buddy (J was off fixing a low spot in the fence) that popped Buddy's reins loose.  Buddy, of course, promptly decided that heading back home was the wisest course of action.   But the gate was closed, so he couldn't actually get where he wanted to go, so then he decided keep-away would be fun.  The three of them made a few trips back and forth before Buddy let himself be recaptured.

Between Sunny and Thunder my hands were already full, so I declined to participate in Buddy's game of chase-me.  Actually, I was surprised at how well Sunny and Thunder ignored the other pair's ducking and dodging around, especially when the rest of J's horses came thundering down the other side of the fence to see what all the fuss was about.

Even once we were out on the road T and Rufus were really not having a good day.  After about three miles of fussing and sashaying, combined with more tripping over his own feet, T decided that rather than risk the uncertain footing down the dead mile with Rufus being such a pill, he was going to head back.  We offered to turn around, too, but he was pretty adamant we keep going, so....

J and I continued on around without any more excitement. He was riding in some longer grass, since Sunny and Thunder were occupying the track, and he almost rode right over the top of these.  
 

Some sort of gentian?

I looked them up in the wildflower book, but since I didn't actually pick any...  Anybody recognize them? 

T called just as we were reaching the end of the dead mile, wondering where we were at.  Riding sans companions for a while gave Rufus something to focus on besides being silly, and T ended up meeting us at the top end of the dead mile.  Which made me feel a LOT better.  

I got dust in my eyes and had to pause and cry into my sleeves until I could see where I was going again.  The guys were already a bit ahead anyway, as we'd also stopped to inspect some potentially Arab-eating fluffy clumps of  weeds and a squeaking, flopping mailbox flap. 

No problems with being left. They didn't bat an eye at the very dead, extremely smelly coyote we passed, either.   Sunny and Thunder were happy to wait while T and J continued on.  All that leapfrogging we've been doing with some of us loping ahead , some hanging back, catching up and passing, etc. is really paying off.  Even when the other horses were clear out of sight neither of them fussed, just continued on at an easy working walk.

Back at the trailer they both got a couple handfuls of grain for being such good boys.