Back to the Herd

Starting with our Big Day Out at Kent, it did not stop raining for a week.  My reaction was, bring it.  I had no more cross country courses to run, EZ was going to have a few days off, it could rain to its heart content.  Not riding during this rainy season meant that I did not unload my car of its tack contents for many days.  Here it is in all its glory:

This is even after I had removed most of my show attire.  Little Eva the Dodge did her job well, keeping me dry as I changed all my and EZ's gear.  I must admit, I felt pretty hardcore trucking all that stuff around, like I had reached some coveted level of horse-ownership.  The level of hauling around a lot of stuff, I guess.

Once it finally did stop raining, on my drive over one morning I was able to catch this lovely view of the misty surroundings.

Purdy.

Driving over today, right around in this same spot I found myself behind a truck, and I spent a long time squinting at the contents of its bed, trying to figure out what the heck kind of dog they had in there.

Once we pulled to a stop, the reason behind the difficulty of dog identification became clear, since it was not, in fact, canine at all.  He was totally digging the ride though.

Back at Indian Pond Farm I checked out the herd members.

First and foremost:

Donker appears quite content, so let's all breathe a sigh of relief.

Off in the distance the Big Ds seemed to be quite satisfied with life as well.

EZ came harumphing over, I think the flies were bugging him and he was harboring a hope that I would have some sort of relief for him.  And noms.

As luck would have it we went for a bit of a nom ride, through a high grass field.

 

It's a really lovely field to look at, it's flat and borders the brook and has nice lush grass.  It is situated in such a way though that it is always very soggy, and although I occasionally check it out, hoping it will be miraculously dry, it is always squelching underfoot, and the bugs are particularly relentless.

 

EZ didn't even seem to notice  though for the time we were there, as he was delighted that in the tall grass he could munch while walking.  Genius!

Part of what we ended up doing today was simply walking back and forth down this laneway.  You can see that is dotted with mud puddles.  EZ's favorite!  I think it's not the water so much that he finds creepy, but the mud sliding around, although he did do fine in the squelchy field.  So, walk back and forth we did, and succeeded in getting straight and relaxed and plowing through with nary a pause.  Eventually.  I know it will be a different beast in the trot/canter, but it the mud here is too slippery right now to try that.

EZ was a bit put out after being pressured through puddles and we spent the rest of the ride just trotting up and down the corn field on the end, chilling out until we were sure there were no horse-eating monsters in residence.  There was a deer, however, that seemed suspicious.

 After surviving the puddles and cornfield and the especially scary hose, EZ finally was clean and cooled down, fed treats, and fly sprayed.  In such a situation there is only one thing left to do.