It was supposed to rain today and be cold - but we got a reprieve - at least until tonight, that is. The sun started weakly poking through the clouds about 8:15 this morning, then it grew in strength. By the time I had to drop Abby off to babysit at 10 it was starting to get warm. We looked at each other and decided that we would go groom Spencer and Cherokee. While she babysat, Kyle did his math and a chore or two, I did some laundry and rode the bloody exercise bike (IhateitIhateitIhateit) and then just after noon we met Bubba at the barn. She cleaned and organized the barn because its dissarray offended her, Kyle curried and brushed Spencer in the barn (because Spencer was terribly jealous that I was grooming Cherokee and would not stop nibbling me all over, pulling my hair and rubbing up against me. Believe me, you really feel it when a 16 hand 'teenage' horse rubs up against you). While Kyle paid some attention to Spencer, I used the shedding blade on Cherokee, then curried and brushed her. She was a very happy horse and her white positively glowed while her black was nearly black - no longer mud-soaked brown. As I sit here and write this post, the lovely scent of horsey mud is rising up from the bottoms of my jeans. I am gritty and dusty and it feels lovely.

After the horses were all clean and the barn neat, Abby and I free lunged them. How they loved it - they did not want to stop! So, they got an extra long workout and then came over and blew all over us. And then, because the flies were so bad, we sprayed them. After some initial panicking, Spencer settled down and let Bubba spray him all over. Cherokee, who would not let anyone near her with a spray bottle, let Bubba and I sweet talk her and let Bubba spray her legs, belly, back and neck. We felt it best not to spray her head, so Bubba sprayed it into her hand and then rubbed it on Cherokee's face, into and around her ears and her forelock. We praised the mare and she arched her neck, clearly proud that she had been brave enough to endure this terrible torture. And then we had to praise Spencer again, because he got jealous that Cherokee was being praised.

I wish I had brought the camera with me - it was such a beautiful time.