Today was another beautiful day and I decided to fulfill a wish I've been wanting to jump onto the back of my horse and go riding behind our farm in the open field along with the girls and their horses. The field does not belong to us but to our neighbours and we have been waiting all fall for him to clear it. I swear, he must have been the last farmer in the country to bring in his beans. Anyway, it`s finally done but then the weather was always crappy and who really wants to go riding and freeze your baguettes off? Not me, but today the sun came back out and it was so lovely and warm but ten minutes before we were to head out, Oldest was called aside by a client so it was only going to be me and Farm Girl. We brought Chase and Aussie in and started grooming them.
Aussie was in one of his moods. Actually he didn`t start off that way, but he gets antsy in the cross-ties when Chase is in there behind him so when the boss trails in behind, Aussie becomes unsettled. Then as I started grooming him I noticed his coat was in really bad shape. Not sure what he got into, but it was covered in this crap.
It was thick and nasty and took forever to remove. Aussie hated me scraping at him (that was the only way it was coming off) and by the time I got to the soft brush, he was still flinching. There was no way I was going to ride him. He was sore from my intense brushing and I hadn`t gotten all the crap off where it mattered most, under the saddle. So back out to the pasture he went. Thankfully, since Oldest wasn`t able to ride, I grabbed Chloe instead. She didn`t have any of that crap in her coat nor did Chase so we are baffled over what the heck he rolled in. It was something thick and gooey that hardened to a thick mass of crust at the root of his coat. I probably should have given him a wash and shampoo but we were loosing sunshine quickly and the weather was beginning to drop and would have been too cold for a bath anyway. We tacked up our horses and headed out. Farm Girl likes to ride bareback but takes after her mother and doesn`t have long enough legs to swing herself over, so needs the aid of a bucket.
I usually think stools and buckets are for whimps and will stretch myself ungracefully to mount my horse the cowboy way.
But today I elected to grab that bucket as well and oh my what a difference. I either need longer legs or a shorter horse.
Chase and Chloe are the perfect trail horses and I if I`m not mistaken, have fallen in love.
That's Farm Girl up ahead and I`m sitting behind Chloe`s head taking this photo....in the field behind our farm! Yay, I was so excited to finally leave the safety of the farm. But my excitement was short-lived We had rode across the field to the woods behind the field. It`s farily far. That`s our farm in the distance.
It was our intention to ride along next to the woods around the perimeter of the field and come home on the opposite side. However, we weren`t long at the woods when we heard gunshots. It is hunting season and the hunters are out in full force. So not wanting to spook the horses or, er, get shot, we turned back and headed home.
Just at the time when Oldest`s client drove off. I thanked Chloe for a wonderful ride and handed her over to her owner then watched as the girls rode off without me.
I`ve got my fingers crossed that we get another mild winter so we can get lots of riding time in this winter.