Perfect Summer Saturday

Saturday was one of those perfect summer days -- not in temperature necessarily, it was hot AF. But it was such good mix of productivity and relaxing that I wish I could do it every weekend! I was up early to ride horses before it got too gross out. I was super excited to saddle up, but the day was almost ruined very quickly. As I was finishing tacking up and bridling Cinna, the neighbors did something very loud over across the property line and Cinna jumped, bailed, and bolted, ripping the reins out of my hands. I haven't had any issues bridling her for over a year now, and I had no reason to believe I needed to be on guard for spooky sounds at 8 am on a FREAKIN' SATURDAY, ugh. Lucky for me, she made a beeline for the back pasture, so I just closed the gate and waited for her to get it out of her system. She dragon-snorted and bolted around like a lunatic for a good 15-20 minutes (not helped by the fact that they started mowing up front, so she could hear but not see them). The reins survived most of that, but of course on her last pass up from the back, she stepped on them and broke them. She was in a bridle with shitty web reins I didn't care about, but I was still not in a super great frame of mind after I caught her. I wasn't mad at her, just the situation -- I cannot express how much I miss the days 5 years ago when we lived next to an empty field. I guess as she matures this sort of behavior is more of a once in a blue moon type deal vs when she was a baby and it was like every other ride, so I guess maybe by the time she's 15 it'll quit altogether, lol. 

Dragon snorting. 

Having to ride in my clip-on trail reins because horses that make bad life choices don't get leather reins. 

Regretting her life choices to run around for 20 minutes before actually having to work. 

Just a little sweaty, haha. 

She's not even sorry, look at that face. 

After the less-than-auspicious start, we were still able to have some really good work. She was a little high-headed/sewing-machine-ish to start, but she quickly relaxed and lengthened her neck and covered more ground instead of just going up and down. I didn't canter much, since her canter tends to be lateral and icky when she's tired and she'd already done plenty of running, but a circle in each direction to confirm leads and then lots of nice trot work and we called it a day. She got hosed off and parked in front of an extra fan while I rode Ruby. 

Ruby came out and was her normal superstar self. 

While we were warming up, I got on ebay and picked up an inexpensive pair of reins to replace the broken ones. I have far more bridles than reins, I really probably need a few more pairs, and I'd like a really nice pair for each of my main bridles, but Cinna isn't going to get nice things until she stops breaking my stuff. 

Ruby was excited to be out and working, and when she's ready to roll, it normally manifests as anticipating what I might want and offering all sorts of things I haven't asked for. While I appreciate the work ethic and that she tries so hard to please, Saturday was a good day to work on remember to WAIT until I actually asked for something. So walk trot walk trot halt walk halt back trot walk trot halt walk halt back trot walk trot around on circles, semi-circles, quarterlines, serpentines, and teardrops ad nauseum until she was like "oh yeah I guess its easier if I just wait until you tell me what you want and then I can do it". Bless her :) she tries so hard, I really do love her. 

It was hotter for her ride and she also got really sweaty, so a bath and getting parked in front of a fan was a nice way to finish up. 

I wrapped up with the horses by a little after 10 am, leaving the rest of the day open for the river! While I was riding, DH had been prepping the boat, so I just had to come inside, rinse off, throw on a swimsuit, pack a cooler, and we were out the door. 

It was a perfect day for the river! 

We met up with some friends with a giant pontoon so I got to sprawl out on cushy seats and then just hop in the water periodically to cool off. Definitely changes the equation when the boat has a ladder to climb back aboard!

So I know this is the crappiest grainiest zoomed in cell phone shot, but there was a bald eagle fishing across the river from us! It was so wild to watch <3

We broke out the lilypad, and our friends were OBSESSED. 

It was a really nice day. We spent about 5 hours on the water and wrapped up in time to come home and feed the dogs and turn the horses out for the night. 

We cruised around in the golf cart a bit at sunset enjoying the cooler temps, and this skunk was hanging out with the horses, haha. He vacated the area quickly when we showed up. 

Will literally climb in the back of the golf cart but spooks when the neighbors start a lawnmower. Cinna, you're full of shit. 

Such a long day full of all the things that make both me and DH so happy <3 I love perfect summer days like that!