Of course that description “hot and humid” describes just about anything happening in the middle of July in southwest Virginia, but that doesn’t make it any less applicable to our lovely ride. Pryley continues to do well, and help Debra with her leg strengthening exercises. He’s such a thoughtful horse like that. All parties concerned: human, equine, canine, were somewhat sluggish which we are attributing to the weather. We didn’t set any speed records, but we did have a good three hours of relaxing riding. We started with a loop on Bear Ridge and finished with a road hack to visit the beautiful gaited paint horses. The horse who doesn’t sweat (usually) did indeed sweat. A good soft soak with the hose afterward removed all evidence, so her reputation was not permanently damaged. I don’t even think her pasture mates were aware.
The order was good with lots of climbing in the beginning (and whistling and loud conversation) and then finishing on the flat, for the most part. Having no heels worked out fine, even on the pavement. The bugs were pretty bad in spots, but again, that’s pretty standard for this time of year. It seemed to me that there were more than the normal amount of cobwebs however! Yuck-yuck, phooey-phooey; I’m still wiping them out of my face as I think about it. It seemed odd to me that Clem preferred the chicory weed to the clover at most all of her roadside grazing opportunities. I think chicory is a ‘sweet’ weed and not harmful, but I wouldn’t have thought she would prefer it over clover. She did.
I got to see Cracker Jack up close, which I hadn’t in a long time. She did not travel with us, just graced us with a short send-off visit. She is beautiful and regal as always. Dr. Scout Jones was charming and just right, as usual. She likes to finish up with a spa treatment, or the “brown legs” bath.
The sky varied from beautiful blue with puffy white clouds to dark and threatening to just boring gray overcast, not in that order. It seemed to cycle thru those ranges randomly throughout the day. At one point it actually rained on us. It seems silly to call it rain, although it was technically rain. The sun was shining, the drops were very sparse, and it only lasted a very few minutes. It felt like the cloud had actually emptied itself elsewhere, but suddenly felt the need to shake out any tidbits left clinging to the edges much like one shakes out a coffee cup after rinsing it, or shakes off the water after washing the hands – when there’s no towel handy.