Rambling on Rolex

This summer has been so wet and humid the horses have spent more time inside than ever. It seems nearly every day there is a warning for thunderstorms and we have to weigh our options on the accuracy of the NOAA forecast. Mother Nature can be fickle and pass her stormy weather out to sea, blowing by to the north, or come smack dab over the barn. One night, we turned them out after the storm passed by, only to get home and hear more grumbling off to the south. I crossed my fingers and hoped the storm would dissipate which it did. But without having a run-in shelter, this constant worrying can be wearing on me! The horses are happy to come in out of the 90 degree heat to escape the sun and horseflies, but they are happiest turned out when the temperature drops. So after yet another week of on again off again rain, I'm hoping things will dry up a bit by the weekend.

The watchers

Monday offered a slight break, and I almost saddled up, but looming grey clouds threatened with another downpour. A couple of girls rode by while the sun was shining--I hope they noticed the impending storm. The gang all ran to the fence to watch the visitors clip-clopping up the road.

Harley managed to do something to his left front fetlock one night--inside, no less--and I've given him time off to heal. While he had a "vacation" I rode Rolex Girl. She had a bit of herd-separation anxiety and whinnied for her friends as we walked up the road, but she didn't need too much pushing to keep going away from home. I'm afraid Harley will have taken a step backwards after all this time off. I may be back to hand walking again! But the deer flies were so horrendous, and the weather so hot, we didn't go very far. Rolex has such a springy, athletic walk--so different from the shuffling gelding who only walks fast when he's scared of being left behind, or out on a ride all by his lonesome.

As some of you may remember from a previous post when Harley played with the drill, he has now discovered that box fans can give him the same sensation on the nose as drills. One night this week, I heard a clattering sound coming from Harley's stall. He had managed to press his nose between the bars against the center of the box fan hanging in the window, causing the grill to press against the blades. Expecting him to jump back, scared by the noise. I watched as he did it again, getting his nose vibrated by the fan. Let me explain that the fan is nearly all plastic, so he can't really hurt himself on it, but I did move it back away from the window so he couldn't reach it again.

I hope we get out of this cycle of never-ending rain soon.