A busy day of riding and photo's

Yesterday morning I woke feeling rather foggy- my thoughts were as tangled as wind blown hair. One of those days where I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other to get through my 'lists' rather than attacking my daily tasks with gusto... fighting the urge to go play slug on the hammock.

I have been collecting photo's of most of the horses for their registration in the Curly Sporthorse International registry over the past week or two. While I was off in the 'brook pasture' capturing this side and that side of Zoe's Day Dream and Tupelo Honey, I captured this picture with my zoom of Zoe just finishing up with her morning work out with Chip. I wonder what they were thinking about together ?

Chip's going well and enjoys his daily exercise with Zoe. In a few weeks is his first show of this year- just an intro walk trot again but he's ready for a try at training level as well, so we signed him on for that at the end of July show. I would love to get him in a few driving competitions-- but where to fit it into our busy schedule ?? Impossible. At the show he is attending- they have one day set aside for Morgans in which the horses compete in dressage, driving and the stoneboat competition-- one horse all three. It would be great if we could bring Chip as he does all three rather well.

After we got most of 'must-do's' done, Zoe and I went out for a short ride- She saddled up OYY Dante for his second trail ride of his life. Dante was excited to be the chosen one-- somehow he does not get ridden as often as he'd like- but when he is - he's perfect and forward and a delight.

Right now, ring work does not excite him- so trail is where he's going to build, mature and shine. He's all ears forward and let's go-- there's a big beautiful world out there !!

Leafy trails and dark yukky mud.

Dante insisted on being leader, bravely and competently.

We decided to add what we call the extended loop to our ride- which is full of turns and twists and several places we have labeled the roller coaster-- with dips and rises.. loads of fun to trot and canter.. Dante has a wonderful canter and here on the trail is the perfect place for him to really grow and develop.

The trail comes out into this yard- like so many of our trails here in Vermont, a dead end road with one farm at the end. This is sometimes a bit of a surprise for some horses- as they approach those patio doors and see their reflection.

That was a very cleansing ride-- and Dante was impressive with his forwardness and willingness to navigate it all. What a great young man !

Later in the afternoon, we went over to one of my lease pastures to take more photo's and visit the ponies. We were surprised to find that OYY Demeter has completely shed out to have a new pattern this year-- those appy's are always changing !

She was born a dark dun, over the last few years developing a little frosting over her back. Now, she has new spots and this lovely cobwebbing.

Here's Demeter last winter

and a photo of her last summer in the same pasture where she is now. No spots, no white to speak of.

Demeter is Mom to OYY Matisse, our curly colt with very little color.

For most of the time, my camera was aimed at OYY Piccolo, such a ham and so curious. He has his Mom's personality .. nosey about everything. Mom- Pal O' Mine, is a palomino POA with a nice spotted blanket-- I wonder if Piccolo will develop one as he sheds and grows. He is paternal brother to Matisse.

My main objective here, was to get some decent fresh photo's of OYY Queen Jane Approximately for an interested party... even though I was temporarily side tracked by the adorable ponies. Every time I tried to capture Queen, her pasture mate-- another curious pony, OYY Hummingbird, thought it was SHE who ought to be in pictures ! HummingBird kept getting in the way and posing for me.

I did manage to snap a few of Queen without HummingBird in the foreground, but I'll have to go back and try again... bringing a halter and some kind of distraction for the photo wannabe pony.




At the end of the day, Zoe saddled up OYY Fiona to ride her to her house where Fiona will be Zoe's evening ride mount and get some more time out on the trail. Fiona is an awesome horse, bred expressively to be my "replacement" horse-- although I don't really like to think about that part of the plan since I adore my Keri. Fiona is everything I want in a horse - a very successful breeding of our beloved Teena and Chip. Fiona will live at Zoe's for a few weeks and then come home-- I think Dante will visit Zoe's house next. He's going to love it there with all the new adventures on the other side of the mountain.

I set up jumps and cavaletti's in the lower big ring-- Keri and I are going to learn to jump together ! Keri already loves to jump and is quite proficient-- great form and very willing. Now, I am going to practice .. so far it's fun !


Enjoy your day ~