"60% chance showers likely" doesn't hold much weight with me, when the forecast is for the Owyhee desert in the summer. The desert and I have been disappointed too many times. Most often any rain will hang over the Owyhee mountains and not quite make it down here, 6 miles away. I do, however, take heed any time there are thunderstorms in the forecast… there was a chance today, after noon.
Carol and I rode Zeb and Mac on a 20 mile ride this morning, with rain clouds over the Owyhees, but with not much fear of getting wet.
Just as we were riding down our last hill near home around noon at the end of our ride, the mountain rain was definitely coming our way; we were just starting to feel a few sprinkles. It looked like our desert might indeed get a little refreshing shower.
There were also two very dark and ominous blue clouds heading directly for us that I did not like the suspicious thunderstormy looks of.
Sure enough, as soon as I started untacking Mac at the house, it started raining. Mac finished his grain meal and I turned him loose just as the skies opened up with a Malaysia-like monsoon rain.
It DUMPED, hurling cascades of water and spitballs of hail. I huddled under a cottonwood tree, enjoying the saturated chaos around me, debating about running through the downpour to the tack room, when I was encouraged to take the run option by a cannon of thunder that cracked across the sky.
I half-sprinted, half-danced through the glorious bombardment of rain and hail to the shelter of the tack room, and stood at the door mesmerized, thrilled by the foreign deluge and torrents launched from heaven to earth.
The horse herd turned their butts to the pelting drops, heads to the ground, while the parched desert ground became lakes, rushing rivers, and floods.
As the dark storm cloud and thunder moved northward, new streams
joined old creeks
to swirl and twirl in a colorful rushing dance downstream.
The horses headed for their favorite dirt pile, to 'wash off' the rain with several celebratory rolls in the sand.
We all felt very special, horses and humans and desert, the Chosen Ones who experienced this delightful desert downpour.
Yes, this was my clean white riding horse
Is that steam from the horses or dust from the dirt? What a celebration of Nature, well captured, in word as well as image.
ReplyDeletethanks!
Deletethis was dust, although if it had been any cooler, it would have been steam too!
Great pictures again of nature and its wonders in that desert of yours. Love how the horses accept and adapt no matter what happens. We could learn a lot from them.
ReplyDeleteLove it! I haven't seen a good storm in years and I miss them.
ReplyDeleteNice post Merri. But I don't want rain in two weeks :-)
ReplyDeleteLEO
I can almost guarantee you it won't be raining then. (almost : )
DeleteLightning and thunder scare me. Rain is fine, but that electrical stuff also terrifies Harry who wants to put his 80 pound self on my lap and pant and whimper till it's over. Harry and I are a lot alike considering I am a female woman and he is a male dog,but maybe it even accounts for my occasional morality slips.
ReplyDeleteI love the rolling picture... and your white riding horse made me laugh, too!
ReplyDeleteNothing more beautiful than a desert downpour! Love the rivers and the fragrances!! And your white riding horsey!
ReplyDelete