Twas a Lovely Day!

I got up early on Mother's Day and ran out to feed the horses. I wanted Sandy to be finished early so that he and I could go on a ride. Darling doesn't particularly like trail riding, but she doesn't like me going alone so she often comes along just so I have company. What a good kid to look after her mother like that! But I wanted to ride up the hill a bit, so I left her sleeping and grabbed a quick ride on my own.

After my ride, I worked with Red for a bit. I must admit he's had me feeling a bit defeated. Not because I don't think he's right where he needs to be, but because he's got an adopter anxiously waiting for him and he's simply not ready to leave. If he were mine, it'd be no problem, I'd just keep trucking on down the road and wait him out. But when someone else has a time frame that you need to work within...well, that gets frustrating. Just a bit.

But yesterday Red managed to give me another nugget. With the momma horse here, Red's been shuffled into a new paddock, and yesterday I decided to swing a panel across the front of the stall so he could learn how to stay put in an enclosed area. I led him into the stall and closed the panel behind us, and waited for the nervous energy to surface. Red doesn't like to feel trapped, which has been his hang up all along. But inside the stall he stayed relatively relaxed. He realized he was enclosed, but didn't try to shuffle his feet around me, just stood looking out while I rubbed on his shoulder for a bit. One step closer to being able to climb inside the trailer and allow me to walk out alongside him without panic.

City Boy took me out to lunch afterward, and then Tika and I went up to the arena for a short workout. We're desperately needing an update on her, aren't we?

A bit later in the day, after City Boy went to work, my kids brought me to Hovander Park.

Hovander Homestead was donated by the family to our parks department many years ago. When the Geek Boy was little, we volunteered throughout the summer months, feeding the animals. One year he and a friend decided they were going to ride one of the pigs. Funniest thing you'd ever want to see...

It was a lovely day.

And now? I'm off to my bull session with Sandy. Happy Trails!