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05/01/2003: "Rite Of Spring"

As much as I love spring, with it comes something I do NOT love - having to start restricting Ami’s access to the pasture. :o( Of course, the alternative is much worse, for Ami and me both - so I do it, no matter how hard it is. I have a sneaking suspicion that it hurts me worse than it does her, but that’s usually the way it works, right?

Actually, this is later than I usually let her have full access, but it’s been SO dry that I got away with it. After yesterday, though, it was no longer dry - a story in itself - so I decided I’d been playing with fire long enough. I kept her in overnight last night and after breakfast this morning. I will try letting her out a lunch to graze until I go out to play with them in the afternoon. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that this won’t be too much.

Now, about yesterday’s weather! We wanted rain, certainly, but dang! I had been grooming both of them as it got increasingly darker in the west. I was debating working with the saddle again since Indy didn’t seem to like the thicker pad I had tried last time. I had done something the day before to make the bicep area of my right arm REALLY sore, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to be hefting the saddle around even though I was anxious to try Indy’s reaction to a lighter pad.

My debate ended when I looked again toward the West. It was coming. I hurried to close Ami’s paddock gate and the inside stall gate so I could turn them both loose. The initial light rain quickly turned into HARD rain. Then came the hail, tiny at first but suddenly becoming HARDER and BIGGER. Some of the stones I saw were dime size at least.

Keep in mind now that the three of us were in a barn with a METAL roof! It was like being in a war zone. Indy and Ami were fine with the first round, but when that second round came crashing down, they both were pretty startled. So was I. They both went tearing out of the barn and promptly came tearing back in - not wanting to be pelted with dime sized hail! After that, they both settled right down and waited for it to pass.

The hail stopped, but it continued to pour rain. Finally, I gave them their dinner and swam to the house. We did need the rain, but good grief - it didn’t have to make up for the entire year in one afternoon.