Celebrate

For my birthday every year, I take Red out for a spin. This year the weather semi-cooperated, and we spent about 30 minutes tootling around the back woods.  To give you some idea of how snowy this winter has been already, Dave got the bulldozer out to plow.  That's called pulling out the big guns!  Red was of course scared of the large snow boulders lining the dozer trail, but it did erase the icy crust and make the trails very passable.

Seven years ago when I first moved Red to his barn, I had to ride with a crop to get him to pass scary objects. I usually just had to show it to him, once he'd had a good look at the object and determined that it wasn't all that scary, but maybe he could convince me that it was.  One of the crop-necessary objects was the bulldozer, which usually sits out near the entrance to the back woods trails.  I can't count how many time I would ride to the dozer but never get him to go past it in those first few months.  Red and I have come a long way in our relationship, and a ride like today's is icing on the (birthday) cake for me.  (We walked past the dozer twice without even a ear flick.)

Temperature: 10 Fahrenheit
Wind: light
Sky: sunset into pink dusk
Footing: lots and lots of snow
Companion: Kelso
Number of layers: 3 (silk, polarfleece, wool)