The flight animal

This evening in the low sunlight, Mare and I rode in the hay fields again, ideal for giving us more space now they have been cut. The gate to the hillside field was open so we went through, the angle of the sun giving us daliesque long-legged shadows, Iris legs stretching down the slope jumping pond at the bottom of the hill to join our shadow on the opposite hillside. When we had made a little circuit we went back into the larger flat field that will be the winter grazing. We were working on straightness and moving forward when I noticed a swallow skimming just above the grass and adjusted our course to intercept.

For a couple of minutes we trotted around the field trying to catch the swallow as it swooped and circled just above the ground. Having a clear object helped me to offer her a really clear direction and focus and although we didn't really catch the swallow - it will be a while before we can achieve that - we did have a few moments when it skimmed alongside us at a similar speed before darting away and I remembered that riding a smooth horse over smooth ground might be the closest thing to flying I have ever known. Close enough, I think, close enough.

Also, in the hottest part of the hottest day in the last five summers I found a shady walk to take little Cash on and he let me take his picture in the green forest: