A day off.

Today I am doing: bugger all.

I got my morning dose of joy as the World Traveller came again to ride the red mare. It’s quite a responsibility, sending two beloveds off into the open fields, especially as they have only just started riding together. I busied myself with making feeds and tidying the shed to take my mind off it. Then I came out to see a glorious sight – the two of them cantering up the far slope, a red flash through the line of trees. Even from a quarter of a mile away I could see the harmony and delight, and ten minutes later, two smiling faces returned to the gate.

Then I got on and did a little cantering myself and the mare was all ease and charm. She was having one of those days where everything in her world is good.

I should be running errands and getting Christmassy, but I’m going to have one more day of sitting very still. I may, if I am exceptionally ambitious, gaze into the middle distance.

 

Today’s pictures:

It has gone dank and gloomy now, with the sky the colour of furious doves, but this morning – ah, this morning – there was light:

Hunting by the burn:

I put a bridle on Red for the first time in about five months. It is what the World Traveller is used to, and it’s good for the mare to be able to ride both bitted and bitless. She can’t just be an old cow pony every day, in her rope halter. She seemed perfectly amenable to the idea:

(Although it’s so long since I’ve had to deal with tack I could hardly remember how. That noseband is a bit high. My mother will not be impressed.)

Watching them go off together really did make my heart sing:

And behind them was the dear old hill:

Oh, and one more, because I can’t resist, and Christmas is a time for joy, and what could be more joyful than these happy faces?: