Has Spring Sprung?

Or Is It Just Another Teaser?

Temperatures were up in the 60's F today. It was windy, but the sun was out. We are supposed to have some rain tonight, but it will back up in the 50's tomorrow. I will put the sheets on the Boys for the foul weather and just wait to see if it's a nice 50 or a chilly 50.

But I took advantage of the nice day. I started off with a late morning walk. I timed the field I did yesterday and it was about 25 minutes. So today, I added a trek through the woods to bring the total up to around 45 minutes.  I did some physical labor along the way, moving some fairly heavy fallen trees off a section of the trail. My only worry was that I did not have my gloves on and as I tugged at the fallen trunk, I realized it was wrapped with some hairy vines.

"Warning, Will Robinson! Danger!"  (a quote from an old TV show here.)

Hairy vines are one of the signs of poison ivy!  I may have lucked out as I hurried home and gave my hands a thorough wash with cold water--do not use hot water to wash off poison ivy sap--and some good soap. So far, so good. Either the vines were not the evil weed, or I didn't get any sap on me.

Back home, I came in to rest my muscles for a bit and have a good lunch before heading back out to work the horses.

Well, "work" is kind of  meaningless here. I took Chance out on a trail ride instead.  The wind was whipping up quite a bit along the edge of the woods and fields, but once we were back in the shelter of the trees, it was lovely.  We were out for only about 20 minutes or so.

When we got back into the arena, I trotted around and finally decided to take him over the little one foot "jump" I had set up the other day.  First we simply trotted and he just took a big trot stride to get over. But then, I sent him into a canter and we actually jumped.  Nothing too impressive here, as an obstacle that size is just a big canter stride, but I'll count it as a jump. He was great, and I had fun.

I lunged Tucker next, mostly because I don't care to work him too much under saddle when it's windy like that.  After a session of trotting and cantering, I sent him over the little jump and then raised it to about two feet, just so he had to think a bit.

Once again, he jumped quietly and athletically over the rail about five times in each direction. He was pleased with himself, and I was pleased with him, so we called it a day.

By then it was dinnertime.  Carrots all around topped the grain and I left three happy horses munching away.

I will put their sheets on at late feed. The rain should hold off until then.