Cactus~Be careful!

As serene as yesterday's photo was of the area near the ranch where I'll be riding (hopefully), there is one thing to beware of~~CACTI! I remember the ranch owner telling me that she has trained her horses to beward of cacti. I'll have to ask her how she does it. And, my cousin, Valerie, frequently takes her horses on the trail with her and I'm sure she has trained them, too! I'm going to have to ask her how she does it. Our desert and mountains have many kinds of cacti, including the "jumping cholla". I ran into that one time, up by Mt. Whitney. I got out to use the restroom at the Lone Pine visitor center and all I did was walk by the jumping cholla! I didn't even touch it! When I looked down at my foot, one had attached itself to my shoe! ACK! Of course, you can't touch it to take it off, so I rubbed my foot against the cement gutter. It's NASTY STUFF! Anyway, Quad needs to learn about cactus. He's never been around it and next spring, it will be interesting to see how he does. Right now, after about 5 days of rain, we are welcoming a week of clear skies! Only 5 more school days until VACATION! Can you spell "relief"???