Saturday

So, yesterday morning down here in the desert was...delightful! I opened the front door and cool air filtered in! The humidity was GONE and the temperature was about 75! Phew! What a relief from the hot, sticky days we had last week! After hubby left for work, I drove up to the ranch. The front gate was locked, which meant the owners were gone for the day. Hmmmm....I normally do NOT let the horses out or walk them when they are gone, but I needed to work with Scout and see how she was doing. So, against my better judgment, I took her down to the arena to test her walking and leading skills. She was PERFECT! She calmly waited at the gate, which I left wide open, and she waited for my cue to her that it was time to go. She quietly walked WITH ME and didn't barge ahead! Phew! I let her out for some R&R, then I went up and cleaned out Gigo's water trough. This time of year, troughs almost have to be cleaned out every week, otherwise they fill up with mosquitoes. Then, it was time to put Scout back in her corral and she walked nicely...she only got excited when we walked by the two stallions. BUT...she did very well and got a nice reward of some extra feed! Sunni was looking very forlorn, so I decided to take him down to the arena, since he is a good walker (unless he spooks) and I didn't think he would. He got some R&R, too. While he was there, I cleaned out some automatic waterers. It was just so darn NICE up in the mountains! The air was cool and there was a breeze! Sunni rolled and stretched his legs and then was ready for his treat, so he calmly walked with me back to his corral. Quad was busy eating and I didn't want to disturb him, so I'll take him out for some R&R this morning. Cali was done with her snack, so I put a shorter lead rope on her (not the longer one I was using) and since she leads so quietly, I left my gloves off. Hmmmm...BIG MISTAKE! Cali, who normally is the quiet one, had some R&R in the arena, got the farts out, and stretched her legs. Walking back to her corral, I decided (I know...I SHOULD have known better...) to go the long way, around the big corral where she used to be and where Gigondas is now. Cali had been doing fine...no problems...she stopped to sniff and slobber all over my car, she stopped and sniffed the horse trailer, she stopped and took a couple of bites at the hay stack, she stopped and sniffed with Gigondas and WHAM! She spooked and took off and left me with a major rope burn on my left hand. I nearly lost my ring finger as the lead rope got tangled up on that finger! BAM! She was gone! I could hear her running around the ranch and I called to her and hoped that she'd come back to me and she did. Something spooked her (I don't know what it was...), but she DID come to me when I called her and I was able to get the lead rope and quietly walk her back to her corral. I'll have a nice rope burn to explain to my class tomorrow! It's on the top of my hand. Go figure! The quiet, calm one spooks and "Ms. Manners" is a little lady now! .... HORSES...!!!! Here are some pics I took yesterday. I didn't take any of Scout because she was just eating weeds. Oh, and I took the photo of the driveway at the ranch. The tire tracks are where I drove in and you can see how much rain they got this week!