Tuesday Evening with Sloane

This evening I took Sloane out for a ride.  Because the weather has been so frigid for the past several days, everyone has gotten a little stir-crazy.  Forrest the border collie saw me tacking up and when the saddle came out he was overjoyed to go for a ride!  I managed to get a photo of his happy face in between his excited leaps in the air.

Sloane and I went out to the back forty, and she was ready to run.  We got to the middle west pasture and she picked up a strong trot, then as we headed up the hill to the back she started to gallop.  We ended up doing several laps in the back forty as she raced around enjoying the freedom out of her paddock.  I was impressed with how much "go" she showed me tonight!  Usually she is relaxed and pokes around without any cause for excitement.  She even did some darting left and right as we ran past the logs, demonstrating some cool flying lead changes while she was at it.

When Sloane was done running we settled into a nice walk to cool out.  We did another lap in the back as we watched the sun go down.  I imagined her marveling at her LOOOONG legs in her shadow!

We sure have stunning views out here.  Because our place is located on a plateau in Wellington I sometimes complain that we don't get as much snow as Fort Collins when I want more water for my pastures .  However tonight I felt grateful that I had solid dry footing on which to gallop a horse who really needed it.  And who can complain about the golden fields of dried grass with sunbursts peaking through the clouds?