I finally got a horse fix. It wasn’t tremendously exciting, but at least I managed to get my butt in a saddle for the first time since Groundhog Day (that little SOB really did see his shadow). As I mentioned earlier, hunting was impossible due to the ice storm damage, but today’s warm, sunny, windy conditions, which would have made lousy hunting, were ideal for a hack around the farm with my own hounds.
With hunting probably over for the season, I decided fitness work wasn’t really necessary. And with Arthur’s spirits boosted by the stiff breeze and his extended vacation, I decided that for the sake of his sanity and my safety, we’d keep things fairly conservative. We mainly just ambled around the farm and enjoyed the spring weather, with a little bit of trotting just because we couldn’t resist. My brother reported that he had seen a red fox Thursday, but my hounds never struck. Arthur behaved fairly well most of the time, although we had a couple of minor disagreements.
It was my first opportunity to survey some of the ice storm damage. It’s impressive. There’s a lot of wood lying on the ground, and on fences. Some people are pessimistically predicting that by the time it’s all cut up, piled up, and ready to burn, we’ll be in a drought with a ban on burning. There are a few trees that I’d like to just clean the branches off of and leave them lying for jumps, but that will probably get overruled by the real farmers in the family.