water splash, originally uploaded by Dan65.

Here’s one of those “A picture’s worth a thousands words” examples. My friend Dan has a way of capturing the most expressive moments in horses, and this one reminds me of horses today.

It’s the most perfect Saturday of the summer, the air is fresh and clean, it’s not too hot (here, anyway) and everyone has saddled up and taken to the trails.

It finally rained and there’s a bit of water to splash around in, whether it’s a puddle on the trail or in a paddock. They’ll be gone by mid-afternoon. We hadn’t had a good rain since Memorial Day, while at the other end of the state, they have been soggy, and are plagued with mosquitoes bearing Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

We may have no lawns here, and we may be lugging a lot of water and worrying about the quality of second and third cuttings of hay and our vegetable gardens…but there are blissfully few bugs.

There couldn’t be a better day to ride. Or for a horse to splash.

Thanks, Dan, you caught my sentiment, precisely!