Hot Cocoa and a Horse Clinic

All through fall and winter, I love to drink hot cocoa. When I was a kid, it was almost always from scratch. Now, I usually enjoy a packet of cocoa mix, with some half-and-half poured in. But as the weather warms up, it doesn't even sound good!


But there was a spring day once that included hot cocoa, and it stuck in my mind for some reason.


It was during my high school years, and I had enrolled in 4-H once again after a several-years hiatus, with Trigger as my horse project. It was April, and a riding clinic had been scheduled at the rodeo arena at a nearby town. I got up that morning, and it was really cool out, so I took a cup of hot cocoa with me out to the corral to prepare for the day. For some reason, that steaming cup of cocoa sitting on the top of a corral post is indelibly etched in my mind! It's odd the things that will stick in your brain through the years.


I got Trigger fed and brushed and loaded in the trailer, and the tack loaded. Dad and I took off for the day. Now, one thing I haven't told much about yet is that Trigger would get a little ... spooky ... about things that roared or rattled. That was the only "glitch" I had with him the four years I had him. (He was 12 when I got him, so that habit was pretty well set!) So anyway we were headed down the highway in fine shape, headed for the rodeo arena. In fine shape that is until a huge semi roared up behind us. I had put Trigger loose (untied) in the trailer, which was probably a good thing. It might have gotten ugly fast if he had been tied. As it was, he was circling around in that trailer like a wild thing, freaked out over that horrid roaring monster that was on our tail! That trailer was rocking, our van was rocking, then FINALLY that truck passed us and things were fine again. *SIGH*


Now remember this was April, and Trigger's diet had been hay and grain. Any grass-eating was DRY BROWN grass. We got to the arena and parked, and I prepared to unload Trigger. I opened the trailer door, began to lead him out, and he plopped his front feet on the ground. Then, his eye caught a bright patch of TALL GREEN GRASS that was beginning to grow, and he immediately proceeded to have an impromptu snack! Right there with his back feet still in the trailer. THAT image is also indelibly burned into my mind! Too funny. I hauled him on out, and we had a nice day at the clinic, though with being out of shape through the winter, my knees got to cramping. But it was still a nice outing on a spring day.