Otter Pond Ride

Yesterday I met my 2 sisters-in-law at the Otter Ponds with Kitch & Tillie. After unloading and tacking up, I went to my parents' house and got Sasha. One of them rode Kitch & the other rode Sasha. I rode Tillie and my nephew rode his little pony, Zack. Until the pony had enough, at which point he rode Kitch. He did very well on Kitch and stayed calm, even when Kitch decided to go much faster than he wanted. Being calm is sooooo important, so I was very proud of him!

We rode through the Otter Ponds and then out onto the Mountain Division Trail - a multi-use (but no atv) trail that follows along the old railroad tracks. The girls were really nervous about fitting through this bike gate, but I told them it would be NO problem with MY horses. And it wasn't!!

The weather was GORGEOUS!! Perfect temperature, bright sun on the foliage, we couldn't have asked for better. The horses were feeling pretty full of it, but they behaved. Tillie was great - she stayed behind the other horses when I asked her to, even though that is REALLY scary. I've never ridden a more 'fraidy-cat horse - she is constantly looking behind her and all around her to make sure that there isn't anything coming at her. She spooks a lot, although less & less the more different places I ride her - she's learning that the world isn't that frightening. I'm humoring her. After all, she spent the first 4 years of her life riding in an indoor arena, living in a stall and competing. She had NO idea what a trail ride was until I bought her this spring. She's also having a hard time in the pasture. If there are deer out in the woods, she won't go anywhere near that side of the pasture, even to eat! She's pretty timid...

Sasha was SUCH a good girl! She was bratty, but that's so typical of her and my sister-in-law is REALLY learning how to ride her. She's doing great! Look at her riding along talking on the cell phone...

Yesterday was "Crazy Hat Day" at school. We didn't have any crazy hats, but the boys did make sure that they remembered to wear hats. Our oldest borrowed his brother's Nashville Zoo safari hat and our youngest wore his favorite army hat, which he wears almost every day anyway...

Last night at Cub Scouts I was talking with some of the other parents and I discovered what those helicopter gunships are doing. They are flying a grid work over the state, searching for marijuana plants! Apparently they have to be heavily armed because the planters take these things very seriously. One of the parents had been reading an article about some of the booby traps these guys build - SCARY. Especially for someone like me that spends a lot of time in the woods - I would hate for one of my horses to get hurt by accidentally riding where I shouldn't!

This morning my husband and I are building the round pen!! YEAH!! Monday evening we fired up the tractor and moved the board pile, stack of fence posts and the roofing that were cluttering up the area in front of the mares' new pasture. It was quite a project, but it looks awesome! Now we can put up the round pen there. I can't wait to have an enclosed area for the boys to practice riding. They don't feel confident enough to ride on the trails, so they haven't ridden since last spring.

There was a lot of frost this morning when we woke up. My son "double-dog dared" me to go out into the cold without a coat on - not a problem for me, I do it all the time to tend the animals. So, I "double-dog dared" him to go out in his boxers and tee! He was looney enough to do it and stood there shivering while I ran for the camera!! Haley was wondering what the big deal was, after all she goes out without a coat ALL the time...;-)