I love summer, that’s why I live in Florida.  Even with all its bugs, and heat, I still love it.  Actually I use less fly spray here than I did up north.

Think of all the fun stuff you can do.  Go trail riding and get bit by every bug in the area, but it’s a good excuse to gallop to out run them. Take your horse swimming, and watch the manure balls float toward England, when you live up north, or Africa when you live down south.  Bathe your horse and get wetter than he is.  If you don’t have a pool, you can always sit in the water trough.

When we were kids, it never failed, someone would throw someone into the water trough.  If they were kind, someone would empty your pockets and remove your watch before the dunking. However you’d have to lay on your back, on the ground, to get the water out of your high boots.  Now if you were really lucky, it would end there.  However, the kids at my barn never let it go at that.  They would roll you in the manure pile, dump hay from the loft on you, or perhaps lime.  You were quite a sight riding home on public transportation looking and smelling like that.

We’d put hay out in the fields for horses using a small dump truck.  Everyone was covered, and itchy, with hay.  Sometimes people just happened to fall out of the back while in transit, but when it was empty was the most fun.  Bill would lift the dump body and we would hold onto the front.  He would then drive under low branches to see who would let go.  Funny, no one ever did.  It’s really hard explaining that to your parents.

Sitting on the porch watching the sunset, then going out after dark and jumping on our horses, bareback, maybe a halter if you were lucky.  Oh no lead lines of course.  We’d run around in the dark trying not to hit trees.

Now I sit on the porch or at the barn and watch the sunset.  Sometimes on the mounting block with my horse next to me, and I’ll dream about being young and stupid again.  If given the chance to do it again, I think I would.  Well maybe not hanging from the front of the dump truck, but the rest of it.  I wouldn’t trade any of those memories for all the tea in China.

It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, create memories with your horses and friends. Some day that will be what puts a smile on your face.  Bug bites and all.

It’s summer, let the games begin!