Peeping Frogs so Loud We Could Not Hear the Sound of the Horses' Feet

The sky was crystal blue. The sun warm and bright. The frogs called peepers made so much noise we could not hear the sound of the horses' feet.

The first day's riding in a Minnesota spring along the Gateway Trail. The two horses, Finn and Ellie, and their human companions, Susan and Jane, wandered down the trail, talking or not, smiling and saying hello to the bicylists and walkers who made their way on their sides of the trail.

We saw pussy willows growing next to a small pond. The resident white egret was back. There was a pair of ducks, one black one white. The plum trees had not budded out but in a few months they would be loaded with small sweet fruit.

If anyone had said, "Your horses left a load on our side of the trail back there," it would have seemed strange indeed, anger not fitting what was all around us. Never mind that we had not been on the part of the trail he might have referred to.