Rain! An End to Our Drought?

It RAINED! I forgot what that even looked or felt like. That is somewhat of a good thing, I was reminded that rain = humidity = me with a fro that even a helmet can't cover. We are all too familiar with rain clouds. We are teased on a weekly basis with ominous looking clouds and even thunder. But no precipitation.

Rain means grass. Or at least I hope so, because just yesterday Cash and Panda broke out of the cutting pen (and by broke out I mean someone left the back gate open and they decided to go on a field trip) to go eat grass out front by the road. This tugged on my heart strings, along with scaring me to death, because all they wanted to do was eat some grass. Maybe now they can!

Rain also means a break in our riding routine. No Saturday morning jumping lessons. Instead we are swapping our breeches for swim suits and the horse's bell boots for flippers and wading around in mud 3 feet deep. That's the trouble with not having sand arenas. But this girl isn't complaining! I get to bond with the boys by pulling manes and rubbing Cowboy Magic in tails till their hair is softer than mine (with less split ends). I get to bond. I don't think they think of it the same way.

Rain means mud. Mud is actually not the correct word for it. You've never seen mud like we have. This isn't hot girls in bikinis mud wrestling mud. This is gray and green mud that smells from miles away. It could legitimately contain HIV or at the very least some sort of Hepatitis. It's mud that will stick to you and is somehow soap repellant. If I was hard pressed to recreate this mud I would begin by mixing regular mud, dirt, feces (from horses, dogs, cats, raccoons, birds, and mice), a bit of gravel, some horse feed, and algae. That would probably get us pretty close. This mud has a mind of it's own. It's an uncontainable monster that goes where it pleases.

Rain means more time to clean out stalls (yippee skippy), not a lot of turn out, and a bit cooler weather. It puts smiles on all of our faces and gives some of us a valid and good excuse not to ride. Technically, it gives us time to clean our tack instead of ride... Technically. But you know, water buckets need to be cleaned, aisles need to be swept, and my horse just pooped in his stall. Better run and get that. :)