Hot, Hot Weekend

Saturday morning feeding time: 6:15 a.m. – Lil Fred BIT ME! I had on my housecoat and flip-flops (I know, I know) and he reached down and bit me on my leg, near my ankle – I have a bruise there now! Argh, that little shit!! I kicked him, because I had the feed buckets in my hand and couldn’t slug him, and broke my flip-flop – argh! That little shit! I guess I wasn’t moving fast enough for him.

Saturday was brutally hot, again. This weather pattern is really draining, on me, the horses, the dog, the grass, the pasture, the trees, my attitude. The high heat with little to no rain is not good for any thing.

In the morning we went to ‘town’ to get dog food and a gallon of paint at the big box stores. The paint is for the house exterior; Tom wants to put paint on the peeling/chipping paint. We’re hiding from the Sun.

Also, next year I’m getting ‘fly predator™,’ promise.

We hid from the Sun for most of the day, venturing out for the shortest amount of time, running back in. Brutal. He hoses the boys off with the hose, they liked it. The radio announcer says its 100 degrees in southwest Washington – great! Tom washed the windows on the outside, using the hose, eZAll cleaner and a squeegee. The screens got cleaned, too.

Sunday dawned nice, considering, but I didn't want to ride today, too hot for my little baby. Tom made other arrangements, agreeing to meet Martin, Tracey and Maddie in the park around the corner from our place. It's hard to remember that Maddie is EIGHT-YEARS-OLD.

We parked in what little shade the pasture parking had to offer and tacked up. We headed down the trail, Tom having an ulterior motive: circle back to our place for a beverage. I didn’t think this was a good idea, the trip being longer than acknowledged.

We were barely into our descent, just getting close to the river, when Maddie’s Paint pony, Shine, jumped a downed log and Maddie popped off. She was not hurt, but commenced crying and wanted to walk back to the truck. She did immediately get back on, but cried the entire way back to the parking area.

We should have left then, too, but we started back down the trail. It was heating up now, and I brought two bottles of water and no food. I hadn’t thought we’d ride for long, considering how hot it was predicted to be.

His plan was to ride home from there, and we did. It is a longer ride than he wanted to admit and now he knows. He also knows that I was mad about it, because I knew how far the final destination was.

The trails on this side of the Patuxent River are in terrible condition. I spent lots of time sitting in the saddle while he hacked and clipped and sawed his way through to the other side. Once we crossed Annapolis Rock the trails were pretty darn nice. Except for one place.

Tom fell off of Skip on Sunday afternoon. We were stopped at a waterfall – I was taking a picture (didn't get the picture) and Skip started stomping his back foot, then took off! I think he got stung or bit by a fly, bolted past me and Fluffs, ran down the trail (Tom did not have the reins in his hands) and a downed branch was hanging over the trail - Tom had to really duck to miss it (barely) then he was hanging off the saddle so far that he just slithered off - lost his hat on the limb, too. He was not hurt, neither was Skip. When Tom made the unscheduled dismount, Skip stopped. Because it was late by this time we didn’t do anything about that limb that was hanging down into the trail.

We hadn't marked our detour from the main trail and naturally could not find it. One of these days we'll learn to mark our own trails! Eventually we found it, but the boys were getting tired, I was cranky because I had no water and no food since breakfast and it was now getting close to 4:00 p.m. And it was blazing hot.

We got back home, untacked, put the boys in their stalls with a misting shower and some hay. Drove the car back to the truck, came home. I ate most of an entire watermelon and fell asleep. I woke up later to discover it was raining! We need the rain, but now it was even more humid, if that was possible. Thick and just as hot as before.

Tom mowed some, he's always got something to mow. He later complained about the groundhog mounds. That was what I wanted to do after our ride, if we had returned at noon like I had planned. I wanted to blow those free-loaders up! Didn't happen. Another time, right?

I look forward to summer, then it arrives and is blazing hot. I spend too much time hiding from the heat. What a waste.