AHHHH

Went riding with my friend Jamie after work today. Jamie, her horse, Panda, DirtFace, Scout and I have been riding together quite a bit this summer.  Panda has gotten used to Scout dashing in and out of the bushes carrying long, scary sticks, Dirt Face has gotten used to Scout "helping" me lead him across the pasture by grabbing the lead shank in her teeth and Jamie has gotten used to Scout's over zealous welcome ritual, the one that involves lots of wiggling, plenty of licking and a little jumping.  All in all, I'd say we had a great summer!  

Today, though, it is summer, it felt like fall. We went riding right after work so we didn't have Scout with us, which just felt wrong!  But then, right from the get go things didn't quite feel right, especially for Jamie.  First, she had forgotten her riding clothes in her car and had to change out of her skirt and blouse in the back of the barn, she had no socks and had to wrestle with her boots to get her sweaty feet into them, and then Panda had a few new scrapes and scabs on his butt.  Finally we got the boys saddled and headed out on another riding adventure, minus our trusty sidekick, Scout.  We randomly decided to ride into a part of the pasture that we hadn't ridden all summer.  When we got to the gate, I jumped off Dirt to open it. Dirt stood, munching on grass while I struggled with the barbed wire.  Jamie sat on Panda while he reached his head down to gobble grass, as he was clearly starving, ha!  Anyway the longer I struggled the more vigourously Panda chewed at the grass.  At one point he started stomping his foot. Like, really stomping.  Jamie and I both, startled looked at him and cursed, "what the hell are you doing Panda?" From where I was standing on the ground, I could see something in his eyes that told me he was not just having a temper tantrum.  His stomping became more urgent and Jamie grabbed a hold of the reins.  Finally, I saw a hornet on his foot, "he's got a bee on him, " I pointed out casually and as soon as those words had come out of my mouth, I realized, he didn't just have a bee on him, he had several!  "Ahhh, your standing on a wasp's nest!" I screamed! Jamie, wheeled an agitated, jigging, stomping, head tossing Panda out of the area and dismounted as soon as she could.  Needless to say, we cut our ride short and headed back to the barn.  Jamie hosed down Panda's already swelling legs, which was easy to do without Scout running around trying to "help" with the hose.  Today's ride wasn't the same as our fun summer rides, and I think all four of us went to bed tonight longing for those lazy, Scout accompanied, wasp free rides!