Before Tropical Storm Lee Arrived

There's a much welcome drizzle outside right now thanks to the outer reaches of Tropical Storm Lee. The rain deficit for middle Georgia this year is over 10", so any moisture is gratefully received as the grass is all brown and crunchy. Although the chance of rain today is 80%, it wasn't predicted to arrive until early afternoon, so we agreed that we'd meet at Horse Camp (1099) as usual.

Elaine and I had a problem with the space-time continuum and got there 12 minutes late, but quickly got our mares tacked up and the four of us (or 8 of us: four women, two mares, two geldings)took off. I forgot my Garmin, so no stats this time, but it was a great trail ride, as always.

Rapids along the Ocmulgee River and look! Could that be leaves changing there in the middle? It feels as though fall is trying to tactfully beat summer down. The temps during our ride were mid 80s and overcast with a breeze. A few rain drops sprinkled down every now and again, just a tempting taste of what was to come later, but we were in no danger of melting*.

*whether like the Wicked Witch of the West or from heat. It may be that we would melt like said witch, but there simply wasn't enough water to put us to the test.

I love fungus and my riding partners graciously stop and let me take pictures. Usually I don't get off, so there's distance and moving horse to thwart me, but this one turned out decently well.

We enjoy setting up our picnic and eating almost as much as we enjoy the riding part. Now that Elaine has her lovely Sundowner trailer, she carries a jute area rug in it for setting out in the woods. Add to that JoAnna's picnic table and our folding chairs and we've got quite the set up.

Homemade ham salad on swirly bread, fruit galore, baby carrots, a sub sandwich, a kosher dill pickle, and pale ale spread on our table. Not pictured: diet Coke, Coke, water, cookies and wee, baby Hershey bars.

Asia sometimes has issues tying, so I always tie her loosely and with a leather halter. I want it to break and in the six years I've had her, she's broken one. She and Lady were tied on the off side of Elaine's trailer from the picnic, so I tied her very loosely. So loosely that she decided to go for a walk, but she didn't go far. We found her twenty feet from the trailer, standing in this grassy glade with one foot cocked just dozing. I left her there while we packed up the trailer and she never budged. You can see how far she went in the picture below.

This past spring, Asia dropped some weight gradually and one day last May we noticed. She was far from being grossly underweight, no one would have called the Dept of Agriculture on me for starving my mare, but she definitely needed to put on some pounds. She's the only TB at her barn; the majority are Apps/POAs who are all air ferns, and India, Asia's daughter, is pudgy. Her daddy is Foundation QH and India definitely takes after that side of the family. Katie and Richared upped Asia's intake of beet pulp and grain, and although she began to put on some weight, she was slow in doing it. I found CocoSoya through SmartPak and ordered the powdered version of it, which thankfully Asia found very palatable. Now, two months later, Asia looks pretty darn good. She's put back on the weight and thanks to the trail riding, she's muscled up a bit. I really need to bang her tail and trim that mane though. ;p


Tomorrow is the annual Labor Day Road Race and I've signed up for the 5k. Even if Tropical Storm Lee is raining buckets, I'll go run. I'll switch out my Asics road shoes for the Brooks trail shoes. Yes, the race is all on road, but if there are lots of puddles, the Brooks will keep my feet drier.

Then, once I'm back from the race, I'm going to drive to Dooly to fetch RalphtheWonderPony, who's been living at Shirah Farm this past year. Jim is selling the place (woe! but for good reasons) and wants to downsize the number of horses there. Elaine's going to take her old boy, Boxer, and her young-but-lame-boy-thanks-to-ringbone, Tomcat, off her nephew's land and back to her house and she's kindly offered to host Ralph, too. Boxer's hips are pretty much shot, Tomcat's got ringbone, and Ralph has his permanent limp. There is going to be lots of B-L Solution in her life for the foreseeable future.