Mustang Saga

The weather these last couple days has been perfect for horseplay. Yesterday I went to get Soxy and trim her only to have Cisco offer himself to me, so I decided to get brave and trim those hind feet. He was a total gentleman. My cell phone even rang and vibrated against his leg while I was trimming and he didn't even flinch. His right hind was a little different story. He did try, once, to tell me to back off. But I didn't, he did, and we finished up. That leg has a big bump and I see him resting it a lot. He was probably kind of sore. I'm a slow trimmer and he wanted to be done.

Then I rode my big ... well, whatever he is. He's a goof, but lately he's an opinionated goof. I think he's going into his terrible 5's. We had a GREAT ride though. I rode him in a halter for the first time and he was very eager to go see the world. So we did. And I think without the distraction of a bit he was really able to feel my body positioning more. He was much more responsive in his turns. Love it.

And I love this face:

Today I hauled over to my sister's and we had a short but fun ride down the road. Her horse started to tie up so we turned around and went back to get him a drink. When he was feeling better we went just a bit in the other direction and did some splashing in the water. Tonka was feeling especially splashy. I had to insist that he quit, he was getting me all wet. He was a good boy for our second ride in the halter, and this one away from home.

Coda, our sweet almost-31 year old gelding, told us he wants to come home. He's been at my sister's since sometime last fall. Her daughter rode him for about a week and then essentially forgot about him. Today he offered himself at the gate, which I guess he never does. She took out her mule instead and Coda just stayed there mooning at the gate, looking longingly at my trailer. I was going to say maybe I should bring him home, but then I looked at the time and I was about to be late to get my kids off the bus, so I literally ran for the trailer (spooking the mule), loaded up and left. My sister told me that Coda was totally heartbroken and defeated looking when he saw our trailer pulling away. So I'm going to leave the trailer hitched up and go get him tomorrow. I'm excited to have him come home. But of course that means we will definitely be buying more hay.

My horse is an oddball. I knew that, but this is a whole 'nother level of weird. I let him sniff noses with my sister's male mule. Tonka thought that mule was the sexiest thing on four legs. He was thinking thought's of breeding. It was very, very odd, and kind of disturbing, but really mostly just funny.

Oh, and I did a quick trailer loading with Scout today. He loaded up well and was hesitant about backing out. When he stepped down he thought he was going to fall off the edge of the world. Then I put him back and called it a day.