The Weekend

 After much procrastination, here it is finally, the post about my weekend.  People wise, it was a very bad weekend.  Horse wise, it was pretty good and that's what I'll tell you about.  My dad was gone for two weeks so the horses haven't had much attention other than the occasional pat from his landlords. 

Friday:  We got there pretty late, around 11 pm.  Alex and I went out to try and find them.  Copper and Spartan were in the lower half of the pens and the two new pintos our landlords just bought we're in the top half of the pens.  We visited with Copper and Spartan but left the pintos alone.  We weren't comfortable going in the pen with them for the first time at night.  We walked up to the Plant in the big field but didn't find the horses.

Saturday:  My dad and I went to go find the horses while my siblings made breakfast.  My dad made me get on Pawnee and that did not last long.  I proved to him that I do indeed have a concussion and I am serious when I say I do not want to ride.  We managed to get all the horses in the pens, which is not easy when you have 14 horses that you need to bring up to the barn from the back corner of a Quarter.  Especially when some of those horses know they have to work when they get to the barn and do everything they can to not go there.  A bucket of oats always works though.

At this point I actually went in the barn.  We have been overrun by mice.  They are absolutly everywhere.  We've never had a problem with them before.  We don't have any barn cats, but my dog, Si, always did a good job of keeping them to a reasonable level.  But Si has been at my house in the city for two weeks and Somebody who got a long lecture left some bags of oats out on the floor which the mice got into and ruined.  You walk in the barn and there's at least seven of them running in all directions away from you.  But the more you go in the barn the braver they get.  Our landlord has a pile of horse harness on the floor and I will not go with it.  They hide in it.  I was also afraid to reach my hand into any of our buckets and bins.  I am not a fan of mice.

We had a lot of horse to work with so my dad and brother got started on that.  Jillian and I were in charge of catching horses since the boys get too impatient and try to rush them (we, unfortunantly have a few horses *cough*Pawnee*cough* who are pretty lazy and if he realizes he has to work, will do anything he can to not get caught.  When he's in that mood it takes at least two people and a lot of time to catch him in the big fields. 

Jillian and I went into town to buy dewormer and mouse traps.  And a cake, since we were celebrating Alex and Jillian's birthdays.  When we got back the boys were still working with horses.  Jillian and I hung out with Cas and Hades.  Later on is when I came out to cut/butcher Cas' mane and then my dad and Alex went on a ride. 

I also hung out with our landlord's new pintos.  For once they're actually trained which is a huge difference to the older, never been touched horses they've brought home previously.  The pintos are both trained to harness and they were bought to pull the wagon.  The  mare is a dark sorrel pinto and the gelding is a sorrel pinto with two very light blue eyes that are almost just creepy.  Cool, but creepy.  The gelding isn't friendly and I couldn't get near him but the mare will come close.  She's still a little iffy about letting people touch her though.

Sunday:  Sunday was the best day of all of them.  We went to two for breakfast and when we came back Jillian, Alex and I went to hang out with the horses.  I wanted to put Cas' blanket on her and take pictures.  She never actually wears it but I think she's cute in it so every now and then I torture her and make her wear it.  I brought it out to the paddock beside the pens, where all the horses were and dropped it on the ground.  Apparently it then turned into a horse-eating monster.  The entire herd was terrified of it but yet, they had to keep coming closer and then running away.

 Here are the very brave ponies a few seconds before they all ran away and then came back.  I should mention that they have seen the blanket before but apparently they forgot.  Cas was very brave though, she was fine with me putting it on, except the leg straps.  We're still working on that.  I set her free after getting it on her and she immediatly started running around bucking.  She'd run up to the other horses and they would all take off in the other direction.  Sadie kept putting herself between Cas and Hades so the evil blanket couldn't get anywhere near her baby. 

We tried to get near Boots, our landlord's buckskin paint colt who has never been worked with, but we were not sucessful. After that we had to work with June.  June is another of our landlord's horses.  She was broke to ride years back but hasn't been ridden in at least three years and was previously abused, so she has some issues.  But she was actually great and we made a lot of progress with her.  After June we also worked with Cas and Penny.



We went and saw Artemis twice this week.  Yesterday she was not good, at all.  She was really fighting having her feet picked up and ended up kicking me in the hand.  I went months without getting hurt and now every time I turn around I'm getting injured somehow...