Summer is getting warmer and warmer. I love it. I love the heat.

Today was the first day in so long that NO ONE was around. Just me. Me and my art.

Me and my horses. Showing the heat that is happening. As they slowly take shape.

When I was growing up, I rode every day. And Virginia gets hot. The air felt heavy. Starting about 10 in the morning, it seemed like you were wearing a blanket. You would be sweating before you even got on your horse.

So we would poke along. My father and I. Maybe my mother, too, on a weekend afternoon. Slow moving.

Until the last slope. The far side of the mountain. The rise. My horse, trained for steeple chasing, was triggered at that point in the trail. She HAD to run. Rain, snow, heat, no matter. Nydia was going to fly.

So she would. I’d feel the muscular surge of her eager body under me, and we would GO. Wind in her mane. Hooves stampeding. Up to the very top.

Her exhilaration was contagious. I felt elated. So hot in the heat.