24 Days

Yes, it's been 24 days since I've ridden a horse. My last ride was our camping weekend back in early June. Since then, we had a run of very bad weather, I was in a wedding, and I spent a glorious week at the cabin with family. Today was the day to break my "fast" and Rhio seemed as pleased as I was to be out.

We began in the outdoor arena, as I knew the flies were incredibly bad. I figured the arena was probably the least buggy place to ride right now. Rhio had other ideas, however, and was incredibly distracted during my attempt to work on "skills.". I abandoned that rather quickly and gave in to our mutual desire to just get out there and move. We headed down the road, and sure enough the flies were horrible. We could only tolerate them for about two miles, but we were both so happy to be "going somewhere" that it made it worthwhile.

And by the way, don't believe it if you are told that a horse will go where its nose is pointing. Rhio had no trouble trotting in a straight line while biting at the fly on his shoulder.

After our brief but strangely fulfilling jaunt, we spent some quality time with the hose, the barn fan, and a mane comb plus some detangler. My horse doesn't look neglected anymore, and he discovered how nice a fan blowing can be.