Oh How the Sun Doth Shine!

I wish the weekends lasted 5 days and the work week was two days. Now that would make a lot more sense to me. That way I could spend hours and hours with Lilly, not just riding her, but walking with her, and grooming her, and telling her little secrets. Part of what I like to do with Lilly when I see her is give her many many treats. Bill says Christine and I are like grocery stores with all the treats we bring. Apples and carrots are Lilly's faves. Once I read that horses love watermelon and that it is actually very good for them because it gets even more water in their bellies on a hot sweaty day. Well, Lilly hated the watermelon I offered her. She detested it so much that when I went to feed her a carrot that had some watermelon juice on it, she refused the carrot!
I figured we might as well get Norman up in the saddle as a baby. He didn't seem to mind being up there.

I thought I might work with Lilly in the ring before Christine arrived today when I got to Bill's. The ring was perfectly and freshly swept. But it was so damn hot. I love trail riding so much that sometimes I forget how valuable the ring can be. It is great for practicing the sidepass for example. And I decided I want to work in the ring on getting Lilly to learn a slow and collected canter. She'll canter just fine but it can get a little fast and willy nilly. I crave a nice, slow lope.


The ladies at the hardware store gave me this little yellow button to try for free. It's supposed to keep bugs away. Look at the horsehair on my boobs! This looks like it is just a picture of my boobs! Hah! No, it's really a picture of that yellow button.


I was tickled to share my trail ride with Christine. I have not seen her at the barn in a while. Our paths have simply not crossed in the last few weeks. Here she is getting QTee all ready to go. Christine always uses an english saddle. I have never seen her and QTee in western tack. Sometimes when I ride behind her and I see her on that tiny disk of a saddle and I am amazed at it.



It was so sunny I had to put on a cowboy hat I found in the barn. I may have mentioned, I don't like the sun on my skin. When we get to Montana next week, the first thing I am going get is a big ole cowboy hat!


I tried to give the new guys little squares of apple which they took in their mouths and then dropped on the floor. Some horses do not know how to snatch up a treat! Not that that's a bad thing! I'm sure they'll learn soon enough!


Do you see that fly paper stuck to my brumby's bridle? Bill wanted to see if it would work on a horse's head like it works on a human head. If you put a strip of this paper on your helmet, it will be clogged with flies by the end of a ride. It didn't work as well on Lilly's head. In fact, not one fly stuck to it. Earlier in the barn however, she did try to sniff it and freaked out when it got stuck to her nose. I thought, why is she freaking out? and then I saw that little yellow thing go flying through the air.

Here we are sneaking in to check the blueberries. None of them were ripe.

I love QTee very much. She is a horse with a ton of personality. To me, she shines like 1000 watts.

This is on the way home. You can see that Lilly is still wearing the fly strip and it is fly free. It's not the prettiest accessory.

My friend Karen P gave me some special horse soap to keep white horses white. This was the first day I was able to try it! It''s called Blue Frost Whitening Shampoo and Conditioner, and it is made by Fiebing's.

Happy Trails!