Horse Day

This post is long overdue but I haven't felt like typing since it happened.  April 21st my sister, two woman she works with Di and Un, and Di's daughter A came out to have a horse day.  My mom and I arrived at the stable first so we went out and caught Socks and Jimmy and brought them inside.  We were brushing them when the others arrived.  This was not Socks' first time doing the tourist thing, as we always call it, she's done it many, many times and even now, the stable owner's children love helping me brush her so I wasn't concerned about her with them.  It was Jimmy's first time though so we mostly let Un do things with him, since A is only six.  She helped me out with Socks.  She liked helping me clean out Socks' feet.  M helps me all the time and Socks is great about it.  If there's a kid cleaning her foot, she'll let me hold up her leg for however long they need.

I let them all feed Socks treats.  At first A was afraid to but she wanted to try after she watched me do it.  Un and Di also tried and Un and A loved it so much they kept running back to get more treats for her and Jimmy.  I was a little afraid they were going to make them sick.

After teaching them how to groom the horses we took the ponies outside to the grass pens to let them graze while we all ate lunch.  A was so excited to be near them, she kept jumping up and down with excitment outside their pen, begging us to let her in with them (she was not allowed, not unless my mom or I were in with her.) 

After lunch we went out to the pasture to catch Artemis.  She made us walk to her.  A and my mom reached her first.  Ebony and Oceania came running over to us so I stayed with Di and Un as they gave them attention.

Artemis loves little kids.  It probably has to a lot to do with the fact that the stableowners two kids, M and L have been around her since she was born.  A and M are the same age.  She's used to little kids running around her, although I did explain to A she was not allowed to run around them.  She listened to me really well about them at least.

A loved Artemis.  She couldn't understand the different between a weanling and a pony.  She kept calling Artemis a pony and told me she was too big to be a baby horse.  She also telling me that she wanted to ride Artemis since she was the pony.

Un absolutly loved Oceania.  She thought her colour was the prettiest she'd ever seen.  It was hard to tear her away from her.

A really wanted to help me lead Artemis back.  I let her hold onto the end of the lead rope (my lead rope is insanely long) while I did the actual leading.  A didn't notice though and was happy enough.

A helped me brush Artemis and then it was time for them to ride.  A kept bouncing up and down as she waited for us to hurry up and finish saddling.  My sister, Jillian, took Un on Jimmy while I was going to lead A around on Socks.

After they got led around for a while, Di and I walked a few laps around the arena.

Un and I then rode around the arena a few times.  A wanted to race us so as we walked, she ran in front of us.

A then really wanted to race so Un stopped riding Jimmy so A could race Socks and I.  I think my sister captured it nicely in pictures.

The race did not last for long and Socks is still happily undefeated.  I don't have any pictures, but A loved trotting on Socks.  It meant I had to run around the arena with Socks trotting behind me, A yelling "More!  More!"  as she giggled madly.  It was her favourite but I could only run so much before I couldn't do it anymore.    Running in cowboy boots is not that easy. 

It was a long day, six hours out the with horses but all of them were great.  We might have another tourist day in a little while, a friend of my sisters really wants to do her engagement photos with a horse so she might come out and have Socks in the pictures.  It's not for sure yet but it's a possibility.