It’s now a familiar refrain – rain. Not a word, but a refrain. Truly, saying this word around here is an example of inner speech. What just uttering the word, “rain” is indirectly saying is “It’s raining again and it’s a cold rain and coming down hard, and haven’t we had enough of this for a while? Yes it was a hot summer, and there were drought conditions, but enough is really enough.”

My sentiments exactly. Need any more be said?

This morning, I saw the sun when I went outside to tend to the horses. It was below the storm cloud line. Then it was up over the cloud line. And it was again overcast.

Pete and I puttered around some – I worked on my article for the Icelandic Horse Quarterly and he made travel arrangements for early November, most likely the time at which Stormy will give birth to four goats. This is the way life works. But we will be prepared. Goats will have a warm place to stay and get plenty of milk.

After, we headed out to finish up the agility videos. The one we’d done of Hrimmi had an obstacle glitch – I’d taken her through the first weave bucket on the left instead of the right, so we did another video, a few days ago. This left us with two to do, one of Tyra and one of Raudi. We did them both in record time.

No, the horses did not go through all the obstacles perfectly. They never do. But Pete had a very astute observation about this, which was that (in my words) they had all risen to their level of competency, meaning that right now, they could do no better. Better would require additional time and educating. Now, when he said that I realized that he was right – best just to say for now that these three mares had completed the course in a creditable fashion.

Right as we were finishing up – and I do mean right as we were finishing up – it started to rain. Maybe, just maybe, if the sun had been shining brightly, we might have done another go-around with Tyra. No, we called it good. We came inside. Pete then sent the videos in and I read about respiratory-related trauma.

I then made soup and he made muffins in preparation for our afternoon visitor’s arrival. Bonnie and Bob, and their daughter Shelby all showed up on time. Late is always good around here. Shelby was visiting from southern California. I gave Shelby and Bonnie the tour and introduced them to the horses. They were not dressed to be outside, so we did not stay out long.

We looked at the now website-based dispatch photos. Interesting, Pete posted the photos. This was the first time I’d seen the ones of our trip. They weren’t the photos I would have used – but the ones that don’t match up with the written dispatches just add a differing perspective.

It’s now late afternoon and it’s still raining. I am reminding myself that I must be adaptable and when it’s raining like this and get work done inside. And when the sun’s shining, get work done outside.

Next: 270. 9/30/19: Older Horses