One Fine Day

 

It would be difficult to replicate a day like yesterday. 

All the stars lined up for a good day from morning 'til night.  

First of all, how could it get any prettier than the photo above?

Twas truly living the good life on a great day. 

The best part:  CB behaved. 

In fact, he behaved so well, I even trotted him a couple of times around my sisters' arena for my first-ever time. 

It felt good.  He has a nice, smooth trot, so I think I'll be enjoying that next step in our team progress.

Trotting around the arena was a nice way to end a fairly successful session of practice over trail obstacles.

Once again, the "village" helped me through, with Bill assisting with loading CB on both ends.  Amazing how much faster CB walked into the trailer this week. 

Monte held CB while I mounted, and my sisters kept an eye out, offering encouragement from time to time.

The day also included lunch with my sisters and friends Roxzene and Monte at Blue Heron Restaurant.

While I went to lunch, Bill headed off with his kayak to fish at Roman Nose Lake.

While he was gone, I sat back and had a wonderful and long telephone visit with my friend Susie "Sky" Baldwin. 

She had sent me a picture earlier in the day, taken over the weekend as she and her husband helped celebrate the 140th anniversary of his family's ranch at Telluride, Colo. 

The 800-acre Schmid Ranch is part of a conservancy.

https://www.historycolorado.org/location/schmid-ranch

 https://www.schmidranchtelluride.com/

As a result, the family had financial help restoring four of the original buildings on the place. 

 Susie, whom I've known for more than 60 years, and I talked about the ranch celebration along with many other topics of the catch-up nature. 

Our occasional visits each year are like an elixir---always rejuvenating the gift of a longtime friendship. 

Plus, she leads a pretty interesting life, enjoying her horse activities along with the rural and ranch life of Colorado. 

The day continued on a positive note as doggies played and raced around and I simply took in the beauty of the day. 

Today will start off on a busy note with the horses' farrier visit, along with a young man from Alaska who's coming by to watch horses being shod.  

And, then there's the rest of the day to do with as I please. 

All good. 

Happy Wednesday. 

That's my longtime friend Susie "Sky" in the middle, with her husband Marv on the right and his brother on the left.

The photo was taken as part of the Schmid Ranch 140th birthday party this past weekend in Telluride, Colo.