April Showers Bring. . . Wait a Minute!

We've been getting a lot of this lately:

Which means riding has been a bit halted. I ride whenever I can, whenever the weather is decent enough. I'm not a big fan of riding in rain. . . not because I dislike being soaked (Well, I do, but. . . ) but because Daisy has always been funky about cars driving past on wet roads. Plus it decreases my visability as I ride, makes the road slippery, affects my ability to hear cars coming up behind us. . . etc. So I generally don't ride if it's raining at a good clip.

Today Daisy went out on the lawn for a half hour, for the first time this year. She enjoyed it.

I was taking photos, until I was ambushed. Miss Genevieve:

Besides some cropping on the one below, these are SOTC. :) I love my new camera!

These last two required a bit of zoom, and so I edited them on picnik.com. Not the greatest colors. I was headed into the house when I realized the other barn cat was visiting with Daisy as she grazed as well, albeit much closer. Daisy and Gronemeyer:

Gronemeyer has been known to plop down in the midst of herds of deer (. . . are groups of deer herds?), only to stand up after awhile and surprise them, making them scatter.

I went riding on Wednesday and has a great time. You know those moments where, despite the fact that you've heard it a million and one times, something suddenly "clicks" and you GET it? I was riding and thinking about this photo I saw that Smartpak posted of a Rolex dressage rider. Someone commented on how very closely the rider's legs were literally wrapped around the horse. Having seen the photo, it was all of a sudden much easier to understand and do, and voila, Daisy framed up really quick! :) I love it. 

My silly horse. So many times I ride and feel bad and think she's tired. . . but the last week she's been so FULL of it coming home. We always gallop the same straight stretch on the road, about a quarter mile, and she was hauling this week. And proceeded to gallop her way up hills following as well. And I thought she didn't have the energy. . . 

I'm so gullible.