Lily, Invisible Monsters and the worst spa treatment ever

Life in the Pacific Northwest is generally a soggy affair. And as most horse owners know, horses + rain = mud. By some miracle the clouds decided to hold off when I went to the barn today and I decided to put Lily in an outdoor turnout. Maybe this was not my best idea ever. Did I mention it was really windy? You know...... the kind of wind that has your horse convinced that there is a big, hairy horse eating monster ready to pounce AT ANY MOMENT!!! I'll tell you, the walk from her stall to that turn out while in actuality is pretty short, seemed like a mile. We managed to get there though ( miraculously avoiding monsters of any kind) and I deftly unchained the gate,led Lily through and BAM........Super Spook (that monster must have had one of her legs in it's mouth) and she took off. The good part was she took off in the right direction..........into the paddock and not back out the gate. Also, she didn't trample me in the process (whew!). The bad part you ask?? Right inside the gate slightly to the right is a very large muddy lake (you may see where this is heading). When Lily took off I was still holding on to the lead rope about to remove her halter. Because of the mud and the downward slant of the ground, I slipped AND was pulled off balance (kind of like mud skiing) and kerplop right in the middle of the muck.
Lily calmed down pretty quickly and trotted back so I could remove her halter and lead (what a sweetheart ha) I swear I could hear her thinking.....Hey! You don't want me rolling around in this stuff , what do you think your doing?! I finished my horsey tasks covered with mud pretty much head to toe, all the while thanking God that no one had been around with a video camera! People say mud is rejuvenating right? Although I don't know about the addition of horse poop (yeah gross, but they do just eat grass and hay and stuff) and I think it's supposed to be warm! But I guess now I can save a few bucks and cancel my trip to Calistoga!