When time flies—where does it go ?? Perhaps time goes to those moments that you wish would hurry up and end, filling up the space when time is dragging by ! Or maybe it flies to the past every once in a while and that’s where déjà vu comes from! At any rate, the month of May has disappeared and I am not sure I even remember it.

May is traditionally a special month because not only do I have Mother’s Day as a personal celebration, but I have my birthday a week later. But—somehow—here it is June already, and May buzzed right past me leaving only a vague memory. I did manage a few trail rides, but mostly I am riding in the ring attempting to make improvements on my posture and instill some reminders for my horse that I am the rider, she is the horse.

This May of 2008 was unusually hot and dry. It’s the month you are hoping the hay will last till the grass is up and the ground is dry enough for turning the animals out. Many years, in mid-may, we still have snow or at least get a few spitting storms. Gardens can’t truly be planted until Memorial Day. This spring, we were all confused by the arrival of very hot weather.. and this causes the “where do we start first ? “ syndrome.

Now that is June, I have been following the horses around with my camera. Their winter coats are pretty much all groomed and bathed out- and it’s time to up-date all the photo’s on the web site. I have become quite fond of my ponies—perhaps due to my age and size. The big sporty elegant horses are gorgeous, but ponies are so full of spunk and joy.

Elektra, Ivan, and Dante are the 3 horses being worked the most right now under saddle. They are getting a nice mix of ring work and road.

OYY Raphael left at the end of May for his new home. He’s such a handsome lovely horse, I will be looking for great things from him and his new owner- a young boy with gymkhana and adventurous trail rides on his agenda.

I received some beautiful photo’s from the owners of The Mighty Quinn and OYY Sweet Bee. They are in the ribbons quite a bit- so we are proud of the horses and the riders. Mom, Denise is on Sweet Bee and daughter Ionelee rides Quinn. She is 12 I think. Quinn is a full brother to OYY Queen Jane Approximately, a lovely yearling filly pictured here with her best friend OYY Hollis Brown.

Both horses, Quinn and Sweet Bee have been in the ribbons and Denise and her daughter Ionelee have done a super job bringing the horses to this level of showing.

OYY Sweet Bee is a full sister to one of my favorites-- OYY Buster Brown, who was pictured in a previous blog driving. I just love this guy !! He is the one offspring of Chip's who resembles his father the most.

OYY Jockomo got gelded and the two pals—he and Iko had baths, then went out on fresh grazing. Moving them on a rotation gives them fresh eats and less parasites.

Quite a few of the fields are empty now, so time to spread lime and fertilizer. I am on a mission to seek and destroy buttercups. When I first moved here—my focus was burdock. I have been pretty successful. When macrobiotic diets were the rage.. I had a fleeting thought to attempt to harvest burdock root and turn the noxious thing in to some handy cash… but --- I actually have seen packets of the seeds in health food stores so you can raise your own in a garden… crazy. It’s a tough plant to obliterate.

We finally got some rain- not enough but I am thankful for what came. Perfect timing, as it was right after I spread the lime and fertilizer. So hopefully now, the pastures will grow like mad and the horses will be thrilled .. I love not feeding hay.

Chip is still being worked and has his first show the first week of July. We decided to enter him in the just the walk trot since he has been in training only a short time. It will be his first foray off the farm since he arrived in 1998. I will be sure to take lots of photo's and a video.

Enjoy your day ~