Sharing the fun

E's boyfriend is a very sweet young man....who also happens to be terrified of horses. (He also seems to be terrified of me, but that's a posting for a different blog! I'm told by my daughter that I can be rather intimidating. A bad thing? Probably not.....)

N joined us for E's barn chores today, happily mucking stalls right along with her. After they were done, E asked if she could ride Monte bareback. N thinks we are rather crazy to be riding these large animals (he may be somewhat right on that), but when E asked him to try riding Monte with her, he didn't seem to hesitate.

What a tolerant, patient pony!

I did notice, however, that N didn't ask us to start giving him lessons on the ponies. :)

Taking it easy

The barn owner's geldings have the cutest habit of standing nose to tail when waiting at the pasture gate. Just before I snapped this pic, all three were standing lined up like this, heads resting on the rump in front of them. Made me smile.

My sassy girl is back!

It's been daily trips out to the barn this week, giving Zoe doses of pro-biotics and generally making sure she was okay. She was back to eating a regular amount on Wednesday but still picked at her food and was pretty lethargic for most of the week. On Thursday she wouldn't even eat the handful of alfalfa E tried to give her. What healthy horse turns down candy like that????

But yesterday I was greeted by my normally sassy girl - Yippee! When I pulled her from the field she was walking quickly and was actively reaching for more and more and more grass to graze. (She's never terrible when I hand graze her but she does test to see just how far and how much she can get.) And when I went to put her back in the field, I took her halter off just outside the gate (didn't want to walk in the mucky-yucky mud) and instead of docilely walking through and into the field, she backed up and started grazing again. Naughty girl! Once I got her to go through the gate (no real challenge, actually) she took off galloping down the fence line, tail raised high.

I loved it.