A nice day off

Today was absolutely gorgeous! Clear sky, low humidity and it was my day off!
My first stop was the farmer's market. It was like a festival there today. There was someone with a couple of very cute ponies, giving rides to the kids. The local culinary school arrived and was going to give a demonstration. It seemed like there were more vendors than I remember from last year. I bought some early Macintosh apples and ate one on the spot. I also got some leeks at a very good price, and a bag of kettle corn. I ate many handfuls of that in the car!

From there it was a short drive over to the barn to visit the horses. I groomed Dakota and worked with her on some Parelli exercises and longeing. For some reason, I can't get her to go counter-clockwise! Even Pat couldn't get her to do it. She went beautifully in the other direction, though. She hasn't been ridden in a couple of months, partly due to the rain, so I just didn't feel up to dealing with her foolishness.

Instead, I groomed Lady, and rode her. We started in the ring, and went down the road from there. I have really under-appreciated Lady. We had barely started out, when a garbage truck came down the driveway. I took Lady off into the woods, and the driver was nice enough to slow down as he went by. Lady stood there nicely. We walked on, and in a little while the truck came back. No problems this time either. Dakota would have been freaking out!
I took Lady for a nice long walk down the side of the road till we came to the dirt road. I would have gone into the nature preserve, but the deer flies were already so fierce that poor Lady was shaking her head. I wish I had remembered to spray her before we left.

When I turned and headed for home, I expected Lady to start going too fast and giving me a hard time, like she usually does. Not today, though. She did her running walk for a while, and when she realised I wasn't going to mess with her mouth, she kept it reasonable.
We had one minor startle when a guy came along on the other side of the road with one of those stand-on landscaper's mowers. Honestly, I was annoyed with it myself. Lady settled down fairly quickly, and all in all, was a perfect lady!
I am so fortunate to be able to ride and work with these horses. It was an excellent day off!