Summer days

For the first time this year we took the dogs to the river; it's still high and murky so we only stayed a few minutes, just long enough to cool them off, and to introduce Merle  to the  concept of swimming.

I must admit I was kind of merciless to the poor li'l guy, I just took him out in about a foot and a half of water and let him go. He did great! The water was rather cold, so only twice in for him and that was enough. He got wrapped in a towel for the ride home.
The skeeters are back in full force, and I lit the smudge for them tonight after watching Belle throw herself down and roll in the dust and then lay there groaning and complaining; then she got up and went over to the other mares and just stood there and pouted. I watched long enough to make sure it was the bugs and not colic that was bothering her, then I fired up the smudge; I have it in the alley between  the pens and the smoke drifted in to  Beamer's pen first, much to his delight.

He stood there for quite a while, making sure he was covered in smoke perfume.
I'm officially on holidays now, and tomorrow I head over to Janice's with my red roan mare. It's too hot to do a lot of riding, and the mares are out of shape (not to mention the riders!) so we won't be doing anything strenuous, just some easy trails with nice scenery.