After years and years of hard work, I have the horses that I always dreamed of having. Early this morning, Pete said that we should go for a ride, and I immediately said yes. I didn’t have anything pressing to tend to until late afternoon, so the timing was near perfect.

We were out on the ice-free road by 10:45 a.m., a near record for us. Brushing and saddling the horses is so much easier when the weather’s warming up – and now that it’s spring, it was even easier. I rode Raudi and Pete rode Tyra.

Shaggy Raudi

I generally walk the horse that I’m to ride about a quarter of a mile. This warms them up and I can see what their state of being is. I deduced fairly quickly that Raudi really wanted to go. She walked down into a snow ditch; I was able to climb up onto the berm and hop right on her. She never takes right off. She started out at a walk as did Tyra.

Pete went ahead of me, and Tyra first trotted then cantered. Raudi, who has a very slow canter, chose to follow at that gait. When she drew closer, she took up a bone jarring pace. I had to ask Pete repeatedly to slow down. Finally, I just went on ahead of the pair. This worked better because then Raudi did not involuntarily slow to a pace.

We rode to Ridge Runner Road, then turned around and headed for home. Raudi cantered, and Tyra cantered.

This is the first year that Tyra, age nine, has cantered on the road. She had been cantering uphill. I never forced her to take up this gait; rather, I let her decide when she was ready. Raudi has always had a slow, rocking horse canter – she prefers it to the trot.

This was Raudi’s second seasonal road ride, and Tyra’s first road ride. I got Hrimmi out after putting away the other two. This was her second road ride. Being alone, she didn’t have the incentive to move out. She did trot nicely. Her response when she’s asked to canter is like that of Herman Melville’s Bartelby the Scrivner. This is, “Please sir, I prefer not to.”

All Hrimmi wants to do is to pull a cart. I am going to work with her on this and on painting as soon as I get some time off.

No time off today, I did go to town, and took care of some small things at the Hotel, this included straightening out the library cart, filling Bill’s boxes with books, and bringing the Dr. Seuss books from the back room to the front room. My good friend Timothy paid me a visit, and we talked as I worked, which was for over an hour.

Timothy said that he thinks that God never does anything quickly – as proof, he talked about God’s creating the world. Timothy said that at some point in time that people started promoting this idea; that is that this wasn’t something that came directly from God. Rather, it is a fiction.

I’m now thinking hard about the implications of this. Maybe, just maybe, Darwin in a manner of speaking, retraced God’s steps.

Next: 84. 3/26/24: Losing the Human Race