I'm thankful for my husband, who supports and encourages me in everything I do (and tells me when I'm being wholly unreasonable or ungrateful). I'm thankful for a wonderful, loving family that does the same. I'm thankful for a fabulous group of friends that keeps me laughing and from taking myself too seriously. I'm thankful for school for giving me skills and knowledge to make my life interesting and fulfilling. I'm thankful for a job working with cats that's opened my eyes to such a great area of veterinary medicine. I'm thankful for a horse that I connect with and that I can develop a bond with. I'm thankful to be able to help animals. I'm thankful for such amazing pets of my own, who enrich my life as I hope to enrich theirs. 
Wayne and I had a fabulous Thanksgiving ride on our respective horses. Jasper was HOT HOT HOT, and spooked at EVERYTHING. We ended up riding out at Eagle, which I like better despite it having millions of rock chuck holes everywhere just off-trail that are the most perfect size for trapping horse legs and snapping them off at the knees. I like it because one can focus a little more on cardio work and less on technical terrain. There's a nicely footed sandy trail that parallels a road that you can trot on for miles and miles, and we did a nice trot there for about 2 miles. Wayne said it was the longest stint he'd trotted on Cricket, and it was definitely one of the longer trots for us. Jasper looked at lots of things on the trail, as he was leader most of the time since Cricket didn't trot quite to our speed. At Eagle, there's a nice gradual uphill road with terrific footing that's great for workouts, and we trotted up that, as well. Once again, we lead most of the time, and once we rounded a corner to see a stand of FIRE BREATHING SAGEBRUSH that caused Jasper to violently spook and then mini-bolt off-trail. I ended up on his neck, but being such a good boy, he did his best to take me with him away from the deadly sagebrush. I didn't make a deal out of it, and we traversed back to the trail and went on our merry way. I'll admit, I was a little more wary of bravely trotting forward for the rest of the ride, as I'm still out of distance-riding shape, and those big spooks really take it out of me.
Just as we were in our last mile or so, we happened upon a small herd of cattle ahead of us on the trail. The dogs were in heaven and trotted far ahead of us to see what the fuss was all about. I told Wayne it was now time to teach the horses a very important lesson: COWS. ARE. STUPID. Although the barn we board at in Pullman recently acquired a small heifer, I thought she probably presented a much different situation than coming across cows on-trail. We followed the cows down the trail until they decided we weren't going to do anything and stopped to graze. Jasper was doing his best impression of a prancing giraffe as we approached, and I elected to dismount and lead him to the cows. Cricket seemed relatively uninterested. We approached the cows and stood there acting as if nothing was the matter, and soon the horses decided that COWS. WERE. BORING. and got right to eating and messing about. I remounted and told Wayne we were now going to show the horses that they had the POWER to MOVE the cows if they so desired. He went left, I went right, and we circled the cows and moved them off. One Brave Cow decided to stand and face us. Jasper thought this was a little disconcerting until I gently urged him forward with my legs. He hesitated as if to ask if I knew what I was doing, and he started walking forward. The Brave Cow turned and took off, and I could tell Jasper was pretty proud of himself. Lesson one in COWS. ARE. STUPID. Horses 1, Cows 0.
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