Such Fun!

We've been having all the fun lately.

Juniper wants to make sure she doesn't get left out.

Ariel and I have been riding a lot. I'm so glad she has time to ride with me! Sometimes she rides Sawyer and I ride Scout, and then I appreciate Sawyer all the more. Scout is a bit of a klutz, and needs to watch his feet rather than looking for boogey-men and spooking at tweety birds.

We also went for a hike and looked at flowers and found a few morel mushrooms.

Well, this photo of Buster loaded out of order... We finally got the saddle rigged right. I had to order a new cinch and some more latigo straps. Donkeys are narrower up front, so it works to double cinch them with the back cinch back around their belly to hold the saddle back, and cinched tighter than the front cinch but not too tight.  The britchen and breastcollar are only needed in mountainous territory. We will need them. It's important to stay off a donkey's shoulders, even more so than a horse. They move up and down like pistons, they don't move eliptically like a horse's shoulders. We are riding treeless so far so at least there's no tree to hurt his shoulders.

Back to our hike. I love this little hidden creek. We've ridden along it a thousand times but never gone into the trees to check it out because the horses don't fit in there.

I let Winston hike off leash and he actually stayed with us! He didn't get stubborn and stay with a pile of gross bones or anything. Here he is happily perched over a rotten deer leg, but ready to move it we try to take it.

I just liked this picture of Bella. She wanted food. She's obviously starving. I think she needs to live with the donkeys. Pretty much everyone except Sawyer and maybe Scout needs to be on a diet.

We went on a camping trip to my sister's favorite place in the world over the long weekend. We were going to scatter her ashes but my brother-in-law broke his pelvis and dislocated his hip (and he's still on the tractor every day!) so he can't walk well enough to get to the aspen grove she loved.

There's a cattleman's association that has corrals out there and they don't mind of we use them, as long as they don't need them. The cows weren't out yet, and the boys enjoyed having a comfortable place to sleep.

Buster sure is an explorer!

I saddled him up and tried riding him down the road, but the horses were behind him and that scared him, so he just took off and we had no brakes. I just let him go and talked sweet to him. Eventually he slowed down and walked, then a forest road gate got him worried again and off we went again. Liam picked up a trot behind us to catch up and the sound caught his attention so he stopped and I hopped off. Obviously we weren't really ready to ride yet, but oh my gosh his gait is to die for! So, so smooth. I think it's a pace, but I'm no expert on gaits. I'll have to get John to video it sometime and ask you guys.

Liam and Sawyer look so good together.

This meadow. Oh my. I wish my camera had picked it up better. The purple camas flowers in the grass... The aspens. Wow.

Have you ever heard of Pack Burro Racing? The burros/ donkeys carry a symbolic pack, not much on it, and the person and burro run miles through the mountains. Sounds hard. I guess there's good prize money in it. Enough that people who know nothing about donkeys rent them and run with them. Not quite fair to the donkeys. Hopefully it's the people who love their donkeys and train all year who win. Anyway, they run behind their donkeys, like this:

I was working on my "walk on," and "whoa" cues. He was doing great. He's very forward on the trail to we had to work a little extra on "easy."

The guys, trying to coordinate their guys for a photo. They look good!

After we got home Ariel and I went for another ride. She finally found a farrier foe her horse, Cowboy, and got some shoes put on, but one came off after our ride. :(

Her dog and my horse look great together. :)

Cowboy isn't a big fan of having his picture taken, but at least his ears aren't back in this one!

They look good together. :)

This weekend I'm headed to Mule Mania in Dayton, WA. I can't wait! I hope they have plenty of donkeys there. Maybe next year I'll take my longears. Although I suspect I'd rather be in the mountains than showing.