Anti-dote for the February Blahs

There's nothing like a refreshing trot to scare away the doldrums. Sunday we saddled up our two mounts- Keri and Teasel - and went out for a ride. Keri was in a great mood... one never knows if she is going to be feeling zesty or pokey- to which I completely can relate, being a "senior" myself. We got a good forward trot for nearly the first 5 miles of the trip. When we reached what we call the mile long hill (because it's exactly one mile long and quite a hill) both horses wanted to canter. Generally we use that hill to build muscle, so we contain the horses to a trot- but today was a recreational outing so .. canter we did. The skies moved in and out of brilliant sun to squalls of spitting snow and almost hail.

As we pass by the frozen and snow covered pond, it's gorgeous and sunny. In the summer there is usually a family of Canadian geese here, making for an interesting "obstacle".

We pass by a neighbor horse and a nosey donkey and more natural "obstacles"- evidence of the intermittent gusty winds of the day.

It's starting to snow and hail on the mile hill road.

At the top of the hill, on the corner is a house which used to be a schoolhouse. This road used to be called Schoolhouse Road, but with the advent of 911-- the road name changed. As we take a left at the top of the hill, the horses knew we were headed back home so they traveled along pretty quickly and steadily. Great ride !

During the week, Zoe schooled OYY Finnegan, our medium extreme pony stallion. He was definitely having a lazy day.

You can see Zoe is wearing her Champion RAC jacket- here's a close up shot of the back of it.

I managed to get a short video of OYY Dante being schooled in the indoor and his first trot down the road. He's a handsome young man, around 14.2 hands, and he loves his work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXnMalOQDLE

And lastly- a puppy update. The pups were one week old on Saturday and have grown amazingly. India is a super mom as I knew she would be.

Enjoy your day ~