Scenes from an almost perfect day

Finally, I got back to doing what I love--riding horses. I am so busy that this quite often gets put off to some other day--and then does not happen. But TODAY-- I went trail riding with Randy, Linda and my mom, about an hour away from here. Sure some things went wrong (flat tire on trailer, potentially stolen tractor when I got home, etc)....but the rest of the day was awesome.
Mom rode Gyro, probably for the first time. Gy is always a treat in every way so mom had lots of fun. The weather was perfect--about 70 degrees. In August, for Pete's sake.
Radar and I had a great time--every time I get on him, I am reminded how much I love this horse. I mean really love him. I am not selling him. So there Barry (please don't be mad, I just cannot do it). I love him.
Due to all the hangups getting there, I arrived sans-beer. I know--almost unheard of right? But a safe move when one is going to meet Head. He always is stocked. He can hook a girl up. The only thing to make a day horseback better is a cold beer at the rest points, so it is good that he is reliable in this way. But when Head busted out these little bitty beers, I cracked up. He had a selection of regular size beers and beers for midgets or children, and you could not know which one you were getting when you stuck your arm in the saddle bags. It was like some bizarre game of spin the bottle, I swear.
And you know he is a real horseman, just by this scene back at the trailer. A real horseman never takes his spurs off--he just changes boots instead.

When we got home, I discovered some unfortunate things- my head almost spun plumb off my shoulders and I had the beginnings of a full-blown come apart. The details of that may or may not come later. I did not want to skimp on Hammer boot camp due to fury though, so we got him out and went through the motions of his refresher course of saddling and stirrup flopping. He was so good tonight that we decided to push our luck, and ended up having a great ride. Hammer was the same horse I brought home from the trainer three weeks ago and not that raving lunatic that I dealt with last week. We played around in the hay field for a while, until Madison got bored with me. She set up a bunch of obstacles for me--cavaletti, scary diesel cans and wadded up tarp stuff--anything she could think of that happened to be laying around (and that can be just about anything in my world). Nothing put Hammer off--even kittens jumping out at him at Mach 2--he was a rock star. We played til dark, then gave him the night off.

It is amazing how that turned my world around. I was so proud of us. It was the perfect way to end the day.