Muck and Yuck

This is Getting Old

I took Toby out on the trail and rode back to where the trees were flooded. I has now been perhaps six months since the new warehouse infiltration basins were finished, stopping the warehouse runoff from crossing over into the Park.

The trees are still under water. Then I rode into the woods and discovered that the patch of trees there was also still flooded and the vernal pond is also still also connected to some of that overflow. This is a potential ecological disaster for all the frogs/amphibians that use that pond to breed. Vernal pools, by definition are created by natural rainfall and are supposed to dry up at some point each year. Otherwise, when waterfowl fly in to use them, they bring fish eggs from other waterbodies and the fish begin to breed in the pool--a consequence of the pool's being perpetually wet. The fish eat the amphibians' eggs killing off the breeding of the native population.

That particular pool/pond is usually filled with all kind of singing, chirping, frogs in the spring. I really hope it will not be a "silent" spring this year because of all that warehouse water.

But, enough of frogs. On to horses.

The "yuck" and the "muck" were on the trail. It was a good thing I took Toby out first because he is very sensible and cautious in bad footing. The thaw created a layer of very slippery mud even in the woodland paths. Toby soon figured out that if he edged over to the side wherever there was a good layer of leaves, he had much more solid footing. So, I generally let him pick the places he wanted to step except when it was so close to a tree that my knee would have been slammed. He was an angel about it all and we had a nice ride.

But, that ride clearly told me not to take either Tucker or Chance out as someone would have ended up falling. That meant tackling the yuck in the ring. Not slippery this time as the thaw is now deep enough to keep the clay from being a problem. But, there were puddles of water all over the place.

Mr. Idon'twanttogetsplashed attempted to weave his way between the puddles all around the ring. Let me tell you, Tucker is a very agile young man who can move his feet in all kinds of interesting patterns to avoid water. He also has an infinite variety of gaits within gaits to cope with "puddle avoidance."

Now, when I really insist that he go straight, I can certainly make him offer some fairly good work in a wet arena, but it is humorously entertaining just trying to figure out what he is doing when left to his own devices. He has a "tranter" (a trot/canter gait), a skip, a jump, and some very curious lateral moves. Wonder if any of them would be useful in a muscial freestyle? *G*

I ended out ride with a little mini-hack on the trail immediately behind the paddock, just kind of looping out and back. Since he seems to enjoy going out, I thought it was a nice little reward for trying so hard in such yucky conditions.

I didn't work Chance today, but if the predicted rain holds off until dark tomorrow, I will try to give him a bit of a school. It may be my best opportunity for another three or four days as the storm coming across the country this week is supposed to bring heavy rain, with flood warnings posted for much of our area. My ring can't take too much more, or we'll be swimming out there.

Guess I just have to wait to see what happens.