Horses Can Swim!

Caroline is visiting and since it's 104F (40C) degrees here, what better ride than to the swimming beach along the Ocmulgee from Horse Camp/1099? We packed our swimming gear in my saddle bags and the horses wore halters under their bridles and off we went.











Today was a perfect day to ride at Horse Camp and take the horses to the swimming beach. Linda came along, too, and the three mares got along very, very well.

I am not pleased with my new (ok, six months old) wee, Sony camera as the pictures it takes in the woods where it's shady are not nearly as good as the pictures the old Sony took. The pictures I took along the bluff didn't turn out well at all, although one of Linda turned out ok, and same for the pictures at the grave site of General David Adams. The pictures along the river turned out the best, although shooting while holding an impatient horse leads to some shaky results. Asia and Babe both immediately wanted to drop and roll, but they quickly figured out that they couldn't put their heads down or they'd drown. Caroline got very adept at leaping off Babe as she'd hit the ground. When we finally got her out to deep water (I had to drag her out there) she enjoyed it and gave Caroline a good swim. Linda's mare, Music (a/k/a Lady Roxie) loved the water too, but didn't drop and try and roll nearly as often as Babe and Asia. She gets the Swimming Horse Award.

Four times today we saw adolescent wild hogs along the trail. The horses were startled, but didn't turn and flee. I was expecting an angry hog parent to come charging out of the bushes, but thankfully that never happened. In all the many years I've ridden out there, I've never seen a wild hog and to see one four times? It was almost old hat by the fourth sighting. That hog was waiting by my trailer when we returned, but ran off and I didn't get any pictures. Too bad as it was kind of cute, in a I'm-going-to-grow-up-to-be-fearsome sort of way.

And because no entry would be complete without a picture of the Princess of the Universe, I give you a picture taken a week ago when she tried on her brand new turnout blanket bought on sale from Dover's. She and I agree that the humongous "P" on the side is in her honor, not because some Brazilian show jumping dude named Pessoa designed it.


She ask you to kindly ignore the tags hanging off making her look like Minnie Pearl.