hold that thought

Friday night I came rushing home after work with hopes of riding, only to realize - it's too late and too cold. Probably a good thing we didn't force a ride, the horses were kinda grumpy (or maybe that was me) and just wanted to be fed.  Altho our Fall weather has been awesome, the reality is - it is getting colder and winter is looming. Add today's "Fall back" daylight savings time and, it's really going to get dark early(er).

Funny husband looked at my blog and said "looks like your still unwinding from Monday", yep it's been one of those weeks. On Saturday we waited for it to warm up to the mid-40's, and saddled up. Headed south, and...there's our sign. Brother-in-law's truck, they are hunting. Sigh. We made a loop, backtracked and headed out to the north. They soil saved the corn fields in that area, which rerouted our outer path making the ride shorter. I have now officially become fond of soybean & hay fields, those are easy to cross and provide good footing. Pretty sure that's not why they plant them, I'm just saying.

There was a cool stiff breeze, adding a little spunk to the ride. Particularly with Koda. One never knows what is going on in his calculated mind, but the last few rides he wants to go - and to that I say whoa. I remind him he doesn't get to pick the pace, and he listens. We intentionally walk most of our rides, not only to savor the moments but to teach them. We do add spurts of trotting, so they can practice the transition. There will be plenty of years to run, right now our young boys need to gain relaxed confidence. I have no doubt they can fly like the wind, and some day we will.

We came upon a sloped area that must have something living in the brush, it separates the soybean/hay field and always raises Koda's ears. On this ride Koda decided to side pass down hill, then added a couple slow motion jump/lope type moves he sometimes does (not sure what to call it, it's not a real gait). It wasn't really a spook, but what was he thinking? It made me laugh. I'm not much into doing side pass pirouette type moves downhill. Hmm...maybe he could do Western Dressage?  Brad and Nemo were behind us, I asked "what was that? did you see anything? did Nemo spook?" Brad's response "no, Koda just wanted to dance with you" lol. Silly boy.

We rounded the bend, and headed towards home. From behind I heard "look Aurora, isn't that a rainbow in the horizon?" and it was! A short strip of colors, peaking out. That's odd. We typically only see rainbows after a rain, when the sun comes out. Wow, there was another one over the farm buildings...

view of the farm in the distance
we are riding in the middle 1/3 of the large north fields

...unfortunately I wasn't able to capture it in my photo. The second rainbow patch was right above where our boys live. Must have had something to do with the cool weather/sun position? or maybe it was simply a colorful addition from a greater power, adding to my birthday ride. I will hold that thought.