Yes mud, the brown squishy stuff that you squish your toes into in the summer. The stuff kids patty into pies. Fun as it may be then, mud is far from fun in the winter.
The snow has melted with the rain. Now I slog through it in the corrals to feed the horses. It sloshes and sucks on my boots. The brown stuff oozes over the top of my boots and splashes onto my clothes. I find where Blue has stomped the old rubber feed tub into the muck and guess who has to turn it right side up to put feed in it?
Like pigs in their sty the horses have been enjoying mud baths. Mud and crud is encrusted upon their once lustrous shiny coat. Zap, the old grey, resembles a pinto. They slip, slide, bite, rear and play out of boredom because the pasture is off limits.
The thermometer proclaims "It's warm - as in above freezing; go do something!" So I grab a horse to go ride. In my mind I envision a wonderful glorious and free trot down the trails. That ride stayed in my mind, it was not reality. The road going out to the riding area proved wet and squishy. The trails are slick with an inch of mud over the ice underneath. And in some places the soft ground swallows up the whole hoof and half the leg. After a few miles of playing a game I call "slip, slide and sink" it's time to go home. Now the road has warmed up and gives new meaning to the words slip, slide and sink as I put the truck in 4WD and do my best to keep it between the ditches!
So....back to my thoughts of next weekend I will ride. But at least this little jaunt temporarily cured my case of cabin fever.
Am I proccupied with mud? Perhaps. I want to ride without being splashed. I want to be able to trot my horse without falling flat. A nice lope has become a thing of the past. Ah yes, to me - mud is a dud.
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