labor day fun!

What a fun Labor Day! I was not ready to go back to work today. After some much needed sleeping in, I headed out to the barn, I had no plans, but when I got there Jaime and Kyle were hitching up Notch and Clutch.

So I went with them for a drive into town. 

Down the road

Into town. Nothing bothers these guys. Except giant beach balls.

On the way back, we made a couple stops. . .

Fill 'em up!

Had to get some groceries for later

Those are some great horses!

Shady was in a silly mood all day, too.  She was zipping around the pasture like a nut and bossing the big horses around. Donkey is soo funny! Later in the day, she was in the back trails running around and just having so much fun. And Notch and Shy groomed each other for about ten minutes. . .that might explain the thinning mane section.

Eventually I got Shyloh out and took her to the round pen. I think that is her comfortable spot and she seems to like it much better than the hitching post. We did some clicker training and I think Shy is finally getting the first part of this trick I am trying to teach her. 

Then, I decided, hey, I'll get on her bareback again. . .Shy had other thoughts which included continually knocking over the bucket, standing over the bucket, and stepping on my foot. 

What's in the bucket?

Fall down bucket!

I even tried to get on her from afar. . .

If I had ever tried this with Shy before, she would have been so nervous. Now, it doesn't faze her.

But that didn't work. So I had to get reinforcements in the form on Kyle. Then it was no problem. I sat for a minutes then I asked Shyloh to walk on. She cocked a back leg, which threw me into a tilt. I got her squared and squeezed for her to walk on. Nothing. So I asked her to disengage her hind end. Nothing. She was falling asleep. At least she felt comfortable!

Kyle had an idea to entice her to walk to him with a peppermint. It worked! Then she tried to fall back asleep. Crazy pony. Kyle walked us around the round pen with a peppermint to get Shy moving. Wow is my balance terrible, but Shy is pretty comfy. I should probably use the saddle. I didn't stay on long. After that I spent some more time with her just doing nothing.

Later, we all decided to take some horses around the back property. Jaime was going to try Isaac, someone was going to ride Reba, and I was going to drive Dexter, the driving pony. Much, much later, I finally caught him. I thought those days were over! Dexter does not like to be caught or harnessed. He is very well trained, but I think he has had some bad experiences with people. Once he has the cart on, he is all business. Dexter has a cute four wheel cart.

Dexter is so fun to drive! We cruised along the trail that is cut around the soybeans, leaving the others behind. Turns out, no one made it due to various issues. When we got back, we tried to make a turn and almost flipped the cart! Oops! I hopped out quick and Dexter was so calm about the whole thing. Looks like the front spring thing has snapped in the middle at some point and fell down, which caused the cart to be unable to make the turn. It was not a problem during my drive because we never made sharp turns. 

See Shy watching as me and Dexter return? Could it be that she was jealous that I took another horse driving? Ha!

After a day filled with horsey fun, we had a bonfire and some s'mores. Why can't every day be like this?