The Real Day Off

I actually messed up my vacation request and we came home a day earlier than I thought. This actually gave me a day off at home. A chance to have a perfect day off all to myself. Time to create MY perfect day.

Husband had to leave town for work. I took our son to day care. I hauled ass to Rachel's to have a lesson on Sahil. When I got there, she had forgotten that she had another commitment and told me I was on my own. I got Sahil and saddled him up. After some round pen work to make sure he was ready to listen, we went to the arena. It took me about ten minutes to get him to stand still so I could get on but he finally did. We had a very nice ride doing mostly walking, circles, serpentines and leg yields but we had a few stretches of trotting. I was doing it by myself without a coach. Sahil and I were getting to know each other's body movements and earning trust. I left feeling pretty happy.

After stopping to get some vegie plants, I went home to tackle mowing the pasture. It was dusty and I had to go really slow to dodge the stumps. All was going well until I realized I had run over a bird. It was an immature bird and I am hoping that it was already dead having fallen from a nest in the tree I was mowing under. I am worried sick that it was not a crow but a roadrunner. I have a roadrunner or two who take care of critters in the pasture. I abandoned mowing under that tree. I have always been afraid of mowing over baby bunnies not baby birds.

After the pasture, I had a quick lunch. Then I mowed the yard with the push mower. There is a certain satisfaction of having a fresh mowed yard. Feeling pretty dusty, sweaty and gross, I decided to plant my vegies and then clean up. I hoped to ride with my neighbor before I had to go get my son but that was not to be.

I picked up my son, and hurried home. I went down to my neighbor's house to pick up my grumpy old horse they were watching while we were on vacation. She offered to watch the kiddo while I rode home. Don't hurry, was my order from her. I took the long way home, put Bailey up, got a beer and walked back to her house. We sat on her front porch, played Red Light, Green Light with my son and enjoyed the evening.

When I left, I could not help but think was a great day it had been. Two horse rides, hanging with friends, puttering in the yard and getting clean after getting very dirty. After my son went to bed, I made popcorn for dinner. Perfection.