I don't find myself motivated to write lately. Gypsy is frustrating me. She's a mare. Ugh. She paces the fence all day, pining for the geldings, but Tonka beat her up and I know Cisco would too. I tried putting her in with the mares and she didn't care, paced the fence. Tried putting Scout in with her and she teased him quite a bit but he didn't understand so she paced the fence. Now she's by herself again. No sense letting her stir up the other horses. She'll just have to get over it on her own. I think Bella thinks she's crazy.

Once she gets graduated onto grass I'll probably put her back in with the mares.

It's been a weird day, and it's dark and rainy. I hope the afternoon goes better.
Even if she is a little hussy, I still like this mare a lot. She's very very sweet. Pretty too.

Here's my baby. I like him.

My pictures weren't coming out very well today. Bad lighting, too much movement and distance. And I wouldn't mind a new camera. :) But it's not high on my list of priorities.

Yesterday I didn't get any pictures. My hands were very full. I took both Tonka and Cisco out on the trail and Cisco was a pill. Tonka kind of was too. Next ponying practice I'll take Soxy. It'll give me a chance to see how it'll go before putting the wee man on her back, and to see how her wind is now that her sinus infection is cleared up and we have her on an antihistamine.

Yesterday we found the most beautiful little green meadow with a creek running through it. I am going back there next time and taking a picnic. And I'll definitely be taking pictures!

I have a very happy girl who got a new horse today. :)
She didn't know she wanted a horse. I told her she's just going to have to join us for some rides, so we need to get her a horse. I found Gypsy on Craigslist, but she was a ways away. Her owner met us halfway near Coeur d'Alene and we went for a trail ride. Katia didn't want to quit riding! When we got back from one loop the lady asked us if we wanted to keep going across the street to another trail and Katia turned back and grinned at me and nodded her head vigorously. I love it!

Don't mind the scowl. She's happy, just had the sun in her eyes. Look at pretty Gypsy. :)

Tonka rode with her and rode in the trailer with her, so he gets to live with her first while they all get acquainted. The other two boys would like to get to know her better.

I'm very excited! This is a very good mare, no spook to her at all today, but she is buddy sour. We'll work on that. She's been a trail and pack horse so she is used to following other horses, which will be great for family trail rides. But I would like to see her calmer when the other horses leave her sight.

I forgot to say - she's a mustang. Unbranded so who knows what else might be in there. They thought Paso Fino maybe, but I think she looks like a mustang. And she's about 23, they think.

Groovy :)

I will write more about the Rashid clinic later, but I just have to say that if you have a chance, go to one. If you can afford it, ride in one. There's a lot there that you just have to feel, and you don't get that sitting in the audience. But auditing is great too.

My weekend plans have been very hard to solidify. Everything keeps changing! My sister forgot that this is the weekend of the Mark Rashid clinic, and at the very last minute decided she wants to ride in it tomorrow. She needs help so I have to go and audit tomorrow instead of Sunday like I had planned. Then Saturday there's a tack swap I really hope I can make it to, but I also have to go look at a horse (real great deal on a real good horse - if the horse is what they say it is) so I might not get to go to the tack swap. Sunday will be left open for family time. Can't do horse stuff every day I guess... Although if we have a new kids' horse we might just be doing horse stuff anyway!

My sister's most recent scare turned out to be nothing to worry about, after very much stress. They checked it yesterday and they have no question that it is not cancer. Whew.

We went on another nice ride today. It was very relaxing having my calm horse back. I guess the difference was that he's been to this trail before. He got to play steady-eddie for a couple less experienced horses today.

Aren't these wildflowers pretty?

Here we spotted an obstacle that looked like fun.
We were game to try it but there was a gap between the two logs that I thought he might catch a hoof in, so we didn't. (I had to cover up fully even though it was so warm because I got a bad sunburn on my arms yesterday.)

He was really tired at the end of the ride but perked up when the dogs went after something.
We rode for four hours yesterday and two hours today, so I think he'll really appreciate having a day off tomorrow. My sister has another scare and will be getting a biopsy tomorrow so I'm going up with them to Spokane. Not sure what we'll do on Thursday but the weather looks like it should be good Friday so John said he'd go on a morning trail ride with me. Amy might go depending on what happens with the tests tomorrow. I really hope it's another false alarm and there aren't any more after this.

I took a leap of faith today and went riding with someone I'd never met in a place I'd never been to. It turned out to be wonderful fun! The lady I rode with was super nice, her horse was too, and the scenery was gorgeous! Above is the Palouse river and Steptoe Butte in the distance.

I wish this house hadn't ruined my picture of this neat covered railroad bridge:
If you look closely in the center of the picture there's an old train tunnel. We couldn't get to it today but we can cross the river later in the summer and check it out.
I'm very excited to have a new friend to trail ride with! Our schedules match up pretty well and I think we're both equally driven to get out on the trail and have fun.

I had to throw in this funny picture of Huck. He's very fast.

Cisco is already hobble trained. I had my doubts after roping his legs since he wasn't very cooperative, but once I put the hobbles on it was obvious he knew all about them.
Here's a video of Tonka yesterday and Cisco today. Big difference. Not that Tonka was bad, but you can tell he's trying to figure it out, whereas Cisco already knew.

I hobbled Tonka again today but it would have made a terribly boring video. He just stood there and dozed off.

Then we rode and I ponied Cisco on the other side this time. My cell phone camera in the hands of a 7 year old does not take very good pictures.
Cisco was a little hard-headed at first. I kind of wonder if he's been taught not to come up where I'm asking him to be. But eventually he was so good I dallied him and he kept slack in the rope.

Hobble training took place today, finally. I didn't spend a lot of time on it but he got the feel of it. Yes, I know it's risky to do it with a saddle on but I knew it would be uneventful. He thought it was pretty weird and he wasn't happy about it, but he didn't freak out.
After that I penned up the young punk and took Cisco for a test-ponying. He used to be a pack horse and I wanted to see how well he'd do. We have a backcountry trip in the planning phases. :) Cisco and Tonka both did great.


Leap Dog
(Click to enlarge. The eyes!)

It amazes me how much this dog thinks about stuff.

Today I realized how totally lucky I am to have this in my own back yard.

Boys playing with junk

They were all having so much fun

Another one worth clicking to enlarge. Again - the eyes! Such joy and zest for life!

Crimpy butt hair

It was so warm out he finally went ahead and just got in. It was very cold water but he had a blast!

I had so much fun with my son today. I really needed that!

New grass

My sister had a favorite photo but I can't figure out which one it was. Maybe this one? But I think we were going in the other direction. I kinda like this one though.
Here's a goofy video I just had to share. Scout is a busy, busy boy. He needs more attention, I think.

He had just untied himself and I was worried because the gate wasn't secured. I was going to use his lead rope to tie it shut but I couldn't reach. Eventually I had to get down and rescue him because he got his halter caught on the gate. Luckily he didn't have a fit, he just stood and tried to figure out how to wiggle it off.

Today we struggled with proper head placement. I don't know why, but it feels right to me when I have him behind the vertical, which isn't where I want him. I think I need to mark my reins so that I don't ask him for too much.

This is better.

Then we had some fun. Up.

Down

The bad baby was in the round pen. He needs a job.

Tonka was in such a relaxed zen state after our ride that it seemed wrong to stick him in with the little twerp, but that's where I had to put him. That colt is a pain in the butt!

I am so sore! We did that ride yesterday and I wasn't hardly saddle sore at all, but today we did arena work and it killed me! We made good progress toward collection for the first time ever with some coaching from my sister. We also tried out several different pads or shim combos to try to make my new saddle fit a little better. I may have come up with something. My sister's Corrector pad may have helped too, but those are very expensive.

I love my horse. I haven't said that before, have I? :D

We had an absolutely wonderful ride today. The river was a beautiful deep green, the sun was shining, and the flowers were blooming.



Here we ran into a couple of civil war deserters. They threatened to shoot us. But then they laughed and hung around and chatted for a while.



Tonka was totally cracking me up at lunch time. He would stand there with his goofy eager stare, looking at Pepper like he really wanted to mess with him. Every now and then Pepper would shift a log on the ground between them and Tonka would jump. I love my horse, he's so silly. I think his new official name should be Tonka, The Big Goof.

There were a couple iffy moments, as usual on a trail ride, but overall it was a good relaxing ride. All six of the horses on the ride were mustangs. Usually we have a few domestics in the mix but not today. Although you do see the two cavalry horses above - they were a walker and a non-colored appaloosa. But they weren't part of our ride.

Lea had camera trouble but Mary has group photos on her camera. Hopefully someone will email them to me so I can share.

When we got home a big golden eagle landed and hung out on a fence post for a while, then circled above us and flew away. It was so beautiful, totally awe-inspiring, and huge. It seemed to join another bird far above us before it left sight. At first I thought the other bird was a hawk because it looked smaller, and I thought it would divebomb the eagle, but they joined up and I realized the other bird was just high up, not small. I wonder if they are a mated pair. Wouldn't that be neat.

Overall, a great day! Hope you all had a great one too!