Girl's Day

Usually for my birthday I just go out to dinner with my family. We have 3 birthdays within 2 weeks, so we celebrate everyone in one meal. This year I decided I wanted to do something more, so I invited my girl horse-riding friends to the ranch to ride the ranch horses. Girls I used to board with, my best friend from high school, and one of the supervisors at the ranch.

Anke on Alexandre (Standardbred/Friesian), Serena on Rooster (Appendix QH), me on Snotty Pony (Ay-rab)(in real life he's not that cute), Kara on Bailey (Dutch Warmblood), and Janaira on Hershey (Dutch Warmblood).

It was fun to see how different the horses are with riders who can actually ride. They quickly realized they weren't going to be bounced on, pulled on, or given cues that didn't make any sense. Each one of them settled into a nice working frame and just looked so... happy within the first 5 minutes in the ring. I need to do this more often.

I also didn't have to help tie, saddle, bridle, tighten girths, help mount, or adjust stirrups. Heaven.

We headed out towards the only patch of blue sky...

walked through he forest and cantered through the fields.

No one got bucked off, no one screamed and dropped their reins, no one allowed their horse to head back to the barn at a gallop. No one's horse stopped to eat grass in the middle of cantering through the field. No one let their horse ram into the horse in front of them. No one let their horse lay down and roll. Everyone's horse went through the marsh, everyone's horse crossed the water-filled ditch. Everyone actually steered.

We nice conversations. We didn't argue about who's horse was faster, who was stronger, or who could beat who up. We didn't cuss at each other. We didn't talk about the things we did that adults weren't supposed to know about, even if we didn't really do them. We didn't talk about cars or engine parts. Or guns. Or the military. Although Serena could hold her own on the last two.

Serena practiced herding cows by chasing a dog. In a dressage saddle.




We got back to the barn right before the rain hit.

Perfect.