hit the repeat button

What a great last weekend of summer!!  We headed out of the pasture/arena to ride again, a bit later in the day. We rode yesterday's path, in reverse. Unfortunately there were more mosquitoes. We decided it's worth a try to look into fly masks...the boys are sooo good and give us there heads so we can squish the little blood suckers, but it's just not fair. We don't want to ask them to ride in discomfort, and one never knows until you head out. It's worth a try to be able to continue to expand our horizons, in comfort. 

The four of us rode up together, and yes now I can say it appears we have over come "the corner" since we came around the same bend (same angle vs head on) - at least today ;) The boys continued on a bit hesitant at first, we think because of their sun-cast shadows.  They soon got over it. 

Let's face it, life is more interesting out on the trail - even tho we didn't see any wild fowl, deer or other critters today. We did ride further along the highway, and went behind the other farm buildings. A future wooded trail looks promising!?! Once the corn is down, we will be able to ride even further, including up to our house. I'm wishing for a hitching post.

We were all hot and sweaty when we returned, which meant it was a good time to clean pads and boots. Our old lattice deck came in handy.

bottle it

I wish I could bottle days like today, and open them up when needed.

The weather was warm and sunny, with a nice breeze to keep you from getting hot. Mosquitoes don't thrive in it, which means we do. I suggested to hubby we mix things up and try heading out on the trail. If we started getting eaten alive by the skeeters, we could always turn back. Brad thought it was a good idea. He was already in the pasture leveling out the "stump removal" area, and said it wasn't buggy. I arrived to find peaceful grazers.

Nemo and Koda

We lunged, did a short warm up ride in the pasture and headed out. Harmony tends to get herself all wound up when we take the boys out of sight, but she took our departure well today.  Barbie the resident pony on the other hand, got all spun up and was zooming around.

We each took an unplanned different route up the path. Koda and I got to "the corner" first. He was skeptical and took two quick side/back steps, I answered with timely correction...and we continued on. Brad and Nemo rounded the corner shortly thereafter, and joined us. 

It was a gorgeous ride, and a welcome change of pace for all of us. We did hit a pocket of mosquitoes half way through, and had to stop to brush them off the boys a couple times - but nothing major. It was right around the area where we kicked up some turkey, which raised some ears as they scurried off into the woods.

It was sooo nice to be riding out! After we got back to the pasture, we continued riding along the highway. A few new pieces of random trash had blown across and got stopped by the corn stalks, including a large bright yellow bag. I am proud of our boys, they looked at some and rode over others. Further down the road we came across a large hawk that had landed, and was preying on something. We got somewhat close, glad he flew away. It was a good ride, definetely made my day.

jealous

Our trio of horses are doing great together. We always ride Koda and Nemo first, but of course give Harmony attention too. She has gotten used to waiting for her turn to work. The boys crack me up, they have already been ridden, hugged, and loved - but they are still jealous when Harmony gets her turn.

They stand behind by the boards

and peek over them just below their eyes, watching Brad and Harmony.
Koda and Nemo stand side-by-side and peek,
unfortunately my pic of the two of them didn't turn out well enough to post.
It's pretty cute the way they watch.

Harmony gets her turn.
As you can see the sun was setting, had to use a flash hence the glowing eyes.

feed, scoop, hug and run

We’ve only had a couple opportunities to ride this past week. Work, Football, and the never-ending Hockey commitments have once again taken over our lives. Koda and Nemo are growing up and seem to be doing okay with less riding, but it’s such a bummer to just feed, scoop, hug, and run. With that said, we wouldn’t miss our kid stuff. We just keep trying to find a balance. All horses do better when ridden consistently. As the days keep getting shorter, the balance will only be harder.

We squeaked a second ride in Tuesday – it was short and sweet, but well worth it. Warmed up with pasture riding, and wasted no time heading into the arena. I called it good when Koda gave me a full effort, once around the arena, with a half way decent lope both directions - even through the deep end. His lope wasn’t as pretty as when Patty (our trainer) rides him, but we are working on it.

Koda tries hard to avoid the north end of the arena. It is a newer section and the footing is deeper, not to mention it's the opposite end of the gate. I consistently have to work on keeping him wide, mostly to avoid us taking a digger. Not sure why, but I’m not much for hitting the dirt. We have been taking our rests at the deeper end. He seems more accepting of the extra effort it takes to ride through it, and breaks less. Looking forward to our next ride, in the deep end.