An Off and On Day

Hot But....

Not as humid as it should have felt considering the numbers. Maybe I am just getting used to it.

This morning was really nice at around 7 AM when I went out to feed. I hadn't planned on riding then, but instead I decided to do some lunging. I gave Tucker a short workout and then went to catch Toby. He walked off, but Chance came over to me, so I decided to see how sound he looked.

I gave him a short session on the line, doing some nice trot on both reins. I must say, he looks sound, but the darn circle was pretty erratic. Why?

Well, the two other boys decided to come into the ring to observe and kept heading into the lunging circumfrence, forcing Chance to adjust to avoid a collision. Usually I lock the gate but since I wasn't really doing much, I hadn't bothered. I guess Tucker and Toby just needed to "snoopervise" the whole affair.

Done with Chance, I tried to get Toby again. Well, the chestnut wonder would have nothing of that and took off for the pasture in a mad gallop with Tucker and Chance following close behind.

Even misbehaving horses have benefits. With the Boys out of the way, I had no intereference in getting all the breakfast buckets dumped, the water tub filled, and the stalls tidied before I called the herd in to eat. Tuck was first in as he is truly a "stomach" horse--easily tempted by a food bribe.

Work done, I headed in. I did nothing useful for the rest of the morning, and then got a call from my eye doctor that my order of contact lenses was in. After lunch I headed back out. I looked out to the paddock and there was Tucker lying flat out in the riding ring with Toby and Chance hovering over him.

My heart lurched. I'd never seen him lying in the sun and heat like that. Worse, when I called, he started to get up and then lay down again. Chance was stomping around near his head and, I swear, it looked like he stepped right over him. Worried, I went out to see if he was OK.

Big sigh of relief--he was fine. I guess he'd gone down to roll in the sand and decided it felt good enough for a little nap.

I picked up my contacts, checked out the new shopping center, stopped at the muncipal building to pick up a copy of a proposed ordinance I was worried about, came home, fed the Boys and the cats, and then headed off to do some swimming.

Bummer. The lap pool was closed because someone had gotten sick in the water and they were shocking, vacuuming and cleaning. It would take several hours before the water would be safe again. The lazy river with the inner tubes was OK as it's separate, so I hopped in a tube and rode around for about a half-hour. I figured I'd get a little exercise by climbing up the stairs and riding the water slide down once or twice, but on my third tour of the river circuit, they announced that the slide had just been closed. What!!???

There is a family pool but it is impossible to swim in there as people play all kinds of games and kids are goofing around in it. I gave up. I considered going to my friend Bill's house to swim in his pool, but in the end I surrendered to fate.

So much for my planned exercise. Better eat a salad for dinner.