Rodeo Star Wanna-Be's

In the steady gaze of the horse shines a silent eloquence that speaks of love and loyalty, strength and courage. It is the window that reveals to us how willing is his spirit, how generous his heart.
~Unknown

Today was really nice and sunny...not many clouds in the sky, and enough of a breeze to keep it from getting uncomfortably hot. So, needing something fun to do outside, I decided riding my horse, Smokey, would be a good idea.
Well, apperantly, Smokey wasn't as excited to be outside and working as I was. He was stiff, unresponsive and lacking his usual enthusiasm - unless I asked him to canter, in which case he took off bucking and running around the pasture. Great fun for Smokey; not so much for me.
I had a lot on my mind - graduation, summer plans, the start of freshman year, blah blah blah - and I was a little distracted. I was planning on just going out and having fun with my boy; but I was in one of those moods where nothing was good enough, and before long I found myself drilling my poor horse because he wasn't bending correctly or because he wasn't focused enough or for any other countless stupid reasons.
Finally I stopped myself after I began to realize I was getting nowhere with my drill-sergeant attitude and was making Smokey downright miserable. I dropped my reins and leaned forward on my horse's neck, appologizing for being so bossy and annoying. Then I leaned back and layed down on my horse's back, staring up at the sky.
After a few moments of deep breathing and relaxing I was in a much less ornery mood. I sat back up and schooled Smokey on backing up, sidepassing and bending. Then, I made him walk in one circle, all the while maintaining momentum and cadence in his walk. When I was satisfied that we were ending on a good note, I started walking Smokey out. We were done for the day.
However, Banjo had other ideas. The big Alpine goat decided he wanted to be an annoyance and make what I was doing harder - what else was knew? He started following my horse and I around, sometimes getting too close and making Smokey uncomfortable (he's very concious of his space lol). Finally I decided that if Banjo wanted to play with the horses, the horses were gonna play back.
So I turned Smokey around and sent him off at a canter toward Banjo. Of course the goat though this was great fun - someone to play with! - and took off toward the burn pile in the middle of the pasture. So Banjo would run laps around the burn pile, with Smokey following behind him like a cowhorse after a cow. It didn't take long before Smokey started learning how to "read" Banjo and started anticipating his movements. Everytime Smokey sensed Banjo was going to turn and run, Smokey would pin his ears, jump forward and cut him off. Banjo would then turn tail and bound away, snorting all the while.
So me and Smokey played rodeo team for a while - we'd run Banjo like a cow in various different make-believe rodeo events. If Banjo wanted to run around the burn pile, we'd follow him like we were in a sorting class. If Banjo wanted to take off bounding across the field, we'd run after him like we were in a roping event. If Banjo decided to quickly turn and run one way, we'd get in front of his shoulder and send him off in a new direction, like a cutting class. And while most of it we just did at a walk, it was a lot of fun pretending we knew what we were doing.
At the end of our ride, despite my less-than-polite attitude to start with, Smokey still loved me. He followed me to the end of the fenceline as I started to leave, and when he couldn't walk beside me any longer, he stood at the corner of the pasture and watched me go. It's the beautiful thing about horses; they always love you, whether you deserve it or not.
Pictured is Smokey (above) and two of my four goats; Banjo the "cow" in the foreground and Long Ears in the background (below).