Normally

Normally I'd Be Out There Riding

But...well, I didn't have time last night due to the Honor Society thingie. We did have a really nice dinner and the ceremony was very pretty with the candles held by all the students.

I was cheered by the audience after I sang the National Anthem and everyone who spoke to me later was mightily impressed. It is both humorous and charming. I have been teaching there for over 30 years and still, many of my colleagues have no idea that I sing. (Mostly at church where I am a sometime soloist, get paid upon occasion for weddings, do summer music thing at other churches, and I have done one paid concert so I guess I am fairly good. I do know my limits, though and would never have been able to have a professional career.) If you've never heard the US National Anthem sung, consider yourself lucky. It is a vocalist's nightmare. Apparently the tune is an old English song (To Anacreon in Heaven) and the lyrics are all one huge sentence totally impossible to phrase so the words make sense. Luckily, I have a pretty big range of notes I can sing well, so I can handle the messy music.

As I said, apparently everyone who heard me thought so too, because even today I was getting compliments. I'm glad. The whole ceremony was for the kids and I was able to set a really good tone for the evening. I really feel blessed to be able to sing like that.

OK, done with the selfish promotion. Came home tonight pretty tired from the week. The weather is still gorgeous out there, but the Boys were all hanging out in their stalls earlier. Don't know if the bugs were out or what, but I was surprised they weren't out in the pasture. So, I fed them right away.

When I went out later to help my neighbor collect the empty feed bags he gives to his feed man, my little herd was happily grazing at the far side of the pasture. They looked so content and happy I just din't want to drag them in.

We do have a three day weekend. Memorial Day is on Monday so there's no school. The forecast is for good weather, so I figure I can make up for some lost training then. I really want to try some quality work with Tucker, but am still just a little unsure of how sound he really is. I want to work him when I feel I have the time to really evaluate that.

Meantime, I need to make some adjustments to Toby's cribbing collar. He has figured out how to crib in his stall with it on without triggering it. The company has offered a suggestion to modify it but I want to take my time trying that as well.

So, with my own tiredness and the happy pasture Boys, I guess I am giving up for tonight.