Mustang Saga

We had a lovely 4th of July weekend. Hope you all did too.

My little friend got to ride. Here's Tonka meditating while she smiles for the camera.

My boy is getting so big! And I am so glad to see him on his horse.

Riding by herself, with nobody holding the ropes.

I have to tell you, that old mare was not herself this weekend. The night before this picture was taken we got her and Tonka out for a ride. She was a total spaz! I got on to see if she was going to misbehave and she trotted all over the place. Not out of control, mind you, but too much for a little girl. I wasn't even sure if she could carry me anymore, and boy did she show me! She's such a nice comfy ride, I wish she was younger. She mellowed out the next day. I guess she just had too much time off, and too much rich grass giving her energy.

Liam rode with me again today! Shocking! And he wants to go again tomorrow, despite the fact that Soxy spooked ("I think it was a panther mom.") and he fell off. He cried, and his legs were shaky, but I made him get back on once we'd caught the old beast, and we rode around some more, just not in the area where she spooked. I need a youth saddle. If he'd had stirrups and a narrower seat (maybe suede) he wouldn't have just toppled off. Heck, he might be better off bareback than in my slick seated saddle.

"No pictures!"

Tonka went through some thistles and they bothered his legs. I thought he was tougher skinned than that, I'll have to be more careful around the thistles. Here he's rubbing his legs together like a cricket.That's my new saddle on him. He still seems very happy in it. We had a really great ride after Liam went in. Trotted a lot, and I gently insisted that he pay attention to the work and relax rather than eyeballing scary things and arcing his body away from them. He ended very relaxed and happy, and I did too.


Grace finally went out to pasture today! She is such a neat horse. Not spooky. She does get worried, and kind of mildly spook, but it's all reasonable. She mostly just follows along like an obedient puppy, very curious about her world. I was worried we might not be able to catch her again (she's only given me trouble once lately, and that was after I wormed her) but she wanted to be near us, and hung out with us even when we were working outside the fence. She went back to the round pen tonight with no fuss, except when a mosquito poked her in the eye and she stepped on John's foot.

I spent a lot of the day today mowing weeds. We have a thistle problem and I wanted to get them before they flower. I got a nice sunburn.

This evening I got Cisco out, intending to ride him so I can think about selling him, and his hooves were so long I didn't ride. I trimmed him and then hosed him off. He was totally fine with me sticking the hose in his sheath, which needs cleaning, but he was kind of iffy about his body being sprayed. Not bad, he just moved around a bit.

While I worked in the yard, watering my flowers and picking up firework debris, I got about a billion and one mosquito bites. They're thick this year. I told John I'm just a big mosquito bite with a sunburn. But really it's not that bad.

Now, onward to tomorrow! Busy, busy, busy...