Serenity Now

I’m giddy. That doesn’t happen too often. I can’t stop smiling. I sometimes get bogged down with the day to day activities of feeding and caring for horses. I forget that I love riding a well broke horse. The last two mornings Zeke has been at the barn watching me walk away even though the rest of the herd has already raced out to the pasture. Bo and Zeke are friends but even Bo leaves Zeke.

I decided that Zeke was giving me a sign that he wanted some personal time. I loved on him the last two mornings but decided that this morning we would go for a short ride before work if he so chose to. What do you know, he walked right into the barn. I don’t know that he’ll willingly go into the barn tomorrow after finding out the barn means work. But we’ll see. Once I had Zeke in the barn he looked at me with disgust when I threw the saddle pad on him.

But we headed out for a quick ride anyway. There was just enough breeze to keep most of the mosquitoes off. It’s supposed to be 96 with a heat index of 105 so if I were to ride I had to go in the morning. I don’t get the opportunity to ride all that often so I jumped at the chance. The mornings are still bright enough that I don’t have to worry about not being seen out on the road, although at 5:30am apparently there is only one car on the road.

I walked Zeke for the first half mile and then we stretched out into a ground eating lope. I let him go a little bit faster. I didn’t want to push him to his limit since he’s not in shape but he’s not as fast as my old Arabian, Ace. I sure do miss riding that horse. Zeke is as close to Ace as I can find. I don’t know why I don’t ride Zeke more. We loped on for a quarter mile or so and then slowed to a walk to cool down. I didn’t want Zeke to get all sweated up (me either for that matter). We turned around and headed home at a nice leisurely walk.

Have I ever mentioned I love that Zeke! He is such a trooper. He didn’t once spook at anything and was so solid I didn’t worry about being on the road alone. The morning was absolutely gorgeous. Just enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes off and warm enough to go out without a jacket. Of course it’ll be scorching hot later.
But that little ride this morning (it was only two miles tops) is going to get me through the day today. I still can’t figure Zeke out. I can ride him in a wedding dress and he behaves like a gentleman. Ride alone and he’s as solid of a horse as anyone could ask for. Get him into a crowd and he freaks out. I’m betting he wants to be first and thinks it’s a competition. He also jumps water crossings. We’ll have to work on them. With all this rain, I guess I’ll just take Zeke out into the pasture and make him walk through the little creek that runs into the CRP.
I wanted to use Chaos for shows and riding in the Black Hills to give him experience. I’m thinking next year I’ll switch to Zeke. I really enjoy riding a well broke, level headed (when not in a big group) horse.

Here’s to a quiet and relaxing morning filled with serenity and good company.