Plans – Galloping Through

With horses, plans are always subject to change. The Old Ladies Horse Showing adventures planned for this year have been subject to major changes. Reversals are, of course, part of having horses. I have often commented that the best thing about having children involved with horses is that that it teaches them early to deal with disappointment.

*How can such beautiful creatures be so frustrating?*

Bart’s cough eliminated the plan to go to Ohio in March. Then, Derry took a bad step while we were riding, and banged her leg. She is fine, but Jane has decided, given Derry’s age, to forego the Omaha show. So now the plan is for Bart to carry the dreams of both old ladies on his back to Omaha. We are proceeding toward that reduced adventure.

Since I was going to ride both horses, I made the entries, stall and hotel reservations. Once we decided that Derry would not attend, I could not figure out how to scratch her from the show, so I sent an email to someone involved with the Omaha show management. To my horror, it turned out that I had not entered the horses! I had stalls, but I must have messed up the online entry. A real Old Lady Horse Showing mistake! Luckily, entries have not closed yet, and as a bonus, I didn’t have to pay the office scratch fee, since Derry was never entered. A small silver lining, but I am still sort of embarrassed.

Spring has been wet and busy this year. The receding pandemic seems to have caused life to speed up and I can’t seem to find my footing. But I have managed a few bird pictures. Goldfinches have been abundant.

*The flicker with his confrontational stare*

The cats are enjoying Spring sunshine, when we get it, though we’ve had more clouds and rain than sunshine this week.

We continue to be inundated with deer, nearly as many deer as goldfinches, it seems on some days. To my delight, I saw my first amphibian of the season this week, a healthy toad.

The weeping crabapple trees seem spectacular this year, and the white lilacs are going to rival them soon. They are thriving, despite a hard frost this week. I’m not so sure that the fruit trees will fare as well.