swimmingly

Get up! Get up! I yelled at Major as he tried to lay down in the lake...with me still on him! He loves the water, so I decided I'd do a ride out to the lake, and try for a swim.

All we were going to do is play in the water. So we chased followed my SO out to the lake. It was only just barely 100 degrees (I used to think anything above 100 was just the same. It isn't. 100 in the shade is OK, even riding. Even 102. But much higher than that is try-to-hide-in air-conditioning time.) Once in the sand Major gets all excited and a bit prancy. We'd only gone 2.5 miles, but I untacked and stacked everything on a rock, and headed out into the water.

We both waded right in. The lake is so warm it's almost like a bathtub. The sandy bottom is mucky in places, but it was a safe muck, not the quicksand in other portions of the lake.

come snorkeling with me!

And Major splashed. And snorkeled. And I splashed him while he looked on curiously. But he didn't want to roll, or go much deeper than his knees. He wasn't hot or sweaty enough. So I hopped on bareback.

heading out into the deep

I've never been in deep water with Major before, and wasn't sure how he'd react. I had my SO keep a hold of the leadrope. Yes, this might be extra cautious, but I have two reasons for that: one friend's horse got scared, dumped her and ran out into the lake swimming for who knows where, the far side? He was finally caught, but had to be treated for pneumonia. Scary. Another acquaintance's horse decided to roll, he wasn't quite quick enough, the horse rolled, dumped him and hightailed it for home. No thank you. Extra caution for our first time.

add some pawing...

this is deep enough Major thinks...

Major was much braver when I was riding. He walked out about belly deep, and played, and thought about it, but he really didn't seem to want to go any deeper and swim. He had no friends out there, and it was a new thing. So we left it at that. I could have pushed it, but why? This was just a fun experiment.

We were all cool and refreshed. Even more so after my great SO went diving for my frickin' lost boot! Never did find it in the muck. My fault: the boots were loose after a recent trim. I didn't adjust them as tight as I could have. Damn. Maybe the lake will recede some more and an orange Renegade will emerge from the depths...and we'll go swimming to find it.

Major says time to go home, look mom, that way...(look, only one boot too!)