Still living the brumby dream

Last year at this time I was just finishing up the movie I was making about my brumby for our town's film festival. Well! This year I am creating another movie! Yes, still about my brumby, and for those in the film fest's audience who had no interest in horses and thought my film was nothing special, guess what? They will have to suffer through another movie about the same darling mare!!! Bahahaha!

Making this movie has gobbled up a lot of my free time. This weekend was movie making crunch time for me. Yet, I did slip over to the farm twice. How could I not if the sun shines?

When I arrived at the barn yesterday, the donkeys were up to no good. They were reaching their heads in this barn door and snatching halters and bridles off of their hooks (to the left). Then they were flinging them around the paddock!

Do you see that hackamore being trampled under that donkey's feet? Oh dear. I picked everything up and tried to hang it far enough away from the reach of two curious donkey mouths. (Later in the day they pulled a broom into the paddock and destroyed it!)

While cleaning up the mess the donkeys made, my eyes landed on this fascinating and creepy mud wasp nest. It is gross and interesting at the same time.

Then I went and got Lilly from the pasture. Bill was in the round pen working with Freddie. Bill has recently ordered the Buck Branaman DVDs and was motivated by them. I like Buck too and cannot wait to watch the DVDs once I get done with my film editing. So many things to do. I still have my bow and arrow waiting in the wings, remember.

Out to the trail we went: me, Lilly and Getty. I considered taking the Trollwood trail but Bill said just yesterday he had seen a mother bear with two small cubs right by Trollwood's entryway. Because I had the dog, I decided to take the River trail instead. I have ridden through Trollwood many times when I am quite sure bears were watching me, but you never know what a dog will do with a bear (and vice versa), especially when baby bears are in the mix.

It certainly matters not to my brumby what trail we take. This summer I have done the Parallel and the River trails a lot. I get attached to trails, and then take the same one over and over. Last summer I was in Trollwood much more often than on the River trail.

Because Lilly loves to stand in the wettest part of the pasture, her feet can get soft and ouchie. Plus, her feet are flat. This means the best thing to do when trail riding is put her ruby slippers on. Usually once or twice on the trail, and always after mucky muddy spots, I check to make sure they are still on her! Yep, there's ruby slipper #1. (#2 was also on, thank goodness)

The flies have been horrible the past few weekends. Even if I spray the toxic bug spray on Lilly (which I hate using), still they come. Plus, for some reason unknown to me, every time I have been on Lilly I have not remembered to put her fly bonnet on. Go figure. She really could have used one Saturday. I did however spray her with my all-natural homemade bug spray. I will tell you this: on the trail there were still mean flies on her ears all over and I kept getting whiffs of how awful my homemade concoction smelled. Then I used this stuff in the picture when I had to resort to Plan B mid-ride. It works OK, but I also hate the smell of it. Think of mentholated pine trees. Gross.

Here's something not gross at all I was carrying in my pommelbag: brumby treats!

When such treats are offered, my brumby never refuses them. Even more remarkable is that when she takes them, she never bites or snatches. She takes them verrry gently.

Here are my bear bells which I was ringing every now and again. Sometimes when Lilly hears the bells, she uses it as a cue to speed up. I am not sure where or how she has learned this. But today when I rang them, she just kept ambling along. In fact, if this horse were a military operation, she'd be called Operation Slow and Slothlike. She's be the kind of regiment that could win the battle by moving so slowly behind another cavalry they'd never know she was even there. Just like a three toed sloth. Operation Three Toe.

Hee hee. I realize it is a little outrageous to have a photo of poop on my blog. But I could not resist capturing these bell-capped panaeolus (Panaeolus campanulatus) in some old horse poop on the trail. These spindly little mushrooms grow in horse dung June through September. They are also hallucinogenic...but only if eaten in enormous quantities. Seeing these might be able to soothe frayed nerves if you think you have seen sasquatch poop, and freak out. These little guys will assure you the poop you are looking at came from a horse's ass.

On the trail this picture appeared to be in focus when I checked it. Whooops. I took it to show that I had used my handy dandy saw that I carry with me to cut these two fallen trees out of the way. I left the other one because it is easy to navigate, and because I know Christine and QTee love to jump over logs on the trail.

Then we encountered this fallen log which I did not bother to move or chop up. Too big. But it was not there the last time we were on this trail! Once again, I was lucky to have been nowhere around when it decided to fall. Phew. Do you see the blueish green spots on that log? That's more fungus! Chalorociboria aeruginascens, if you are interested. Commonly known as Blue Stain or Green Stain. Only found on dead, decaying hard wood. Very common.

Now this tree has been across the trail as long as I have had my brumby. But in the last few weeks, I have noticed my brumby completely out of the blue acting funny around it. Bill's says it has probably moved a bit lower and even if we humans have not noticed it, the slight lowering is not something the horses have missed. So, not so out-of-the blue after all. Amazing. Makes me love my brumby even more.

We got so much rain in June and July that I was fretting about the hay harvest. But the sunshine came through!

I didn't get pictures of riding Sophie in the ring today, but not to worry! All the things I have been meaning to get to will all get done! (PS she was a very good little pony for me)

Until next time, blogging friends, good night!