Sweaty Eyelids

Ride #4 of my last-week-before-deer-season riding binge was yet another unseasonably lovely day.  Red, Sir Fuzziness himself, and I took ourselves down the road on our well travelled training route.  A few houses still had Halloween decorations on display, and Red was quite certain the pumpkins, ghouls, and ghosties were extremely vicious horse-eating monsters, liable to attack the minute you took your eye off them.  Somehow, we survived them and quite enjoyed our trek down the minimum maintenance road.  As I only had a limited amount of time, I rode out for 55 minutes, then turned around for home.  I estimated we'd take 35 minutes to get home, for my target of an hour and a half ride.  Red had other ideas, and we made it home in 30 minutes, which would have been 20 minutes if I'd let him.  Whee!

Red stares at the sheep we can see through the brush.

And the sheep stare back at us.

Getting home, I slid off to give him a hug and was delighted to see his eyelids were sweaty, but the rest of his head wasn't.  This sounds crazy, I know, but I think his sweaty eyelids are absolutely adorable.  See for yourself:

Red is going to be needing some new hoof boots for next season.  I noticed that he has worn a small hole in the toe of one of his hinds (Easy Boot Bare), and the other is getting quite thin at the toe.  I wish I'd started keeping track of the miles I put on these boots, but that is one detail I haven't been recording in my training log (I will from now on, though!).  One of the front boots (Easy Boot Epic) has a broken buckle and the gaiter is nearly torn as well, but the boot still seems to be in decent shape.  Is there a Hoof Boot Fairy that will bring new boots if I put the old ones outside Red's stall one night?  I will replace his hind boots, keeping the less worn Bare as a spare, and for now probably just replace the gaiter & buckle on the one Epic.  Frugality is the name of the game these days!

If this weather continues, Red and I will probably get out at least once during the week for a blaze orange-emblazoned road ride.  I know my days are numbered by the imminent arrival of snow, ice, subzero windchills, and lack of daylight, and I will yearn all winter for mind-emptying, meditative long trots with my boys.  So, I make the most of every opportunity I have now, in this glorious season called autumn.