Macro Monday

My Macro Monday post this week is "The Lip". I believe I'm mentioned before that my horse has rather large lips. It's pretty comical to watch how far she can stretch them when there is grass just outside of her paddock fence. And when she snoozes they get really droopy and it cracks me up to play with them.

Her lower lip always hangs down further and gapes open and you can stick your finger in there and the skin is all dry and she'll usually just sleep right thru me flapping it around and making her "talk" and all sorts of silly stuff. She puts up with a lot from me! lol

In these pics the girls were taking their afternoon siesta at our last cutting show of the year. We'd already had our runs and were just waiting to watch some friends go before we took off. Even Sugar looks a little tuckered out in this pic.


Midori was just totally zonked out though. I was almost surprised she didn't try laying down. You can see how wild they are. The boyfriend has to keep a watchful eye on them so they don't run off.

Or not. Sug perked up when she realized I had the camera. She's a total camera whore. Looooves posing for me! :)

Another Fun Day

This is my favorite way to spend a day...

And that is how I spent a good chunk of my day today. I was a happy girl! We had a horse show, but even after sitting on my horse for a solid 4 hours I wasn't ready to be done with her when I got home. I jumped on bareback with the halter and let her graze while I sprawled on her back, trying to figure out how the heck I used to be able to do that and not fall off! Sometimes I really miss being a flexible, bouncy little kid! It was a nice way to wind down from the show for both of us.

The show was fun, but the cow gods were not smiling on me today and Midori and I just weren't on the same page. I was sore from battling thistles the night before and she felt stiff and I could tell her head wasn't in the game. She was hanging on the bit and not bending and I just had a feeling it was not going to be our day.

It wasn't. The cows we got were little pistols. They shot out of the gate and stood there, tail and head in the air, just daring me to try to push them around. I've been trying to let Midori work more on her own lately since she's really been cowing up, but that didn't work out so well for me today. By the time I would realize she wasn't going to stop and turn on her own with the cow and got to telling her what to do myself the cow had already turned and we were behind. It just wasn't our day. We lost our working advantage twice. That's the first time this year that's happened to me and to have it happen twice in one run was very frustrating. I may have cursed the second time it happened. Loudly. I still made it out of there with a 65, the lowest score I've received in my lengthy cutting career (4 shows), which landed me in 5th place out of 10. Not horrible, but I was a little disappointed with our run.

The boyfriend, on the other hand, was a total rock star on his run! Sugar was amazing! She was all over those cows like white on rice! She totally cowed up and he got a couple really good cows and they had a really great run, scoring a 70, which put them in first place. It also marked the first time the boyfriend has beat me at cutting. I'm sure I'll be hearing about it for a while.

Even though my run wasn't the greatest it was still a fun day. I love spending time with my horse and the boyfriend so I can't hardly complain.

In other news: Day 2 of no reading just sucks. I'm trying to not think about it, but I did catch myself in the office looking at the "books to be read" shelf. I made myself go outside and feed the critters and finish weeding around the raspberries instead. When I was finished with that I came back in the house and layed on the couch staring at the ceiling for a while, wishing I had a book to read. Then I made a pound cake and strawberry soup. While the pound cake was baking I was wishing I had a book to read. So I loaded pics from the day and got to blogging. I'm sure as soon as I'm done with this I'll wish I had a book to read. Maybe I'll just watch a little tv. Or maybe I'll go grab a book. I did do a bunch of laundry, baked a cake, did the dishes, finished weeding the raspberries...all very productive, so I deserve a reward, right? A reward like, say, getting to pick a book to read, right?! *sigh*

Off to watch a little tv and try to be good atleast a little bit longer.

Mission Accomplished!

Warning: gloating, self-promoting and bragging may follow and for that I'm truly sorry, but I'm pretty darn proud of myself! I got my back bone back a heck of a lot quicker this time then I have before. I totally Cowgirled Up today!

Ok, so after all of that I probably don't have to actually point it out, but I accomplished my goal of not hitting the dirt today. Wohoo! Go me!

I was still pretty darn sore this morning when I woke up, but quite a bit better then Friday (aka: the day after I learned that I don't bounce). I couldn't lift a stapler with my right arm at work on Friday because I was so sore but I was feeling much better today and even managed to tack my horse up all by myself! Wohoo! Go me! (2)

We got to the arena with plenty of time to get warmed up and hang out before we went in, which was the idea.

We some how managed to get totally front row parking. Wohoo! Go us! (2-1/2)

While we were getting tacked up one of the cows somehow managed to sneak out of the cutting pen, make it thru a half arena full of "cowhorses", squeeze thru the bungeed shut gate and get out into the parking lot. It always cracks me up when cows get out and it's such a huge deal to get them rounded up when we are all there to, ya know, work cows. We blocked it from heading in the direction of the street and it ran off down the lane of turnout paddocks. Eventually someone got it rounded up and back to the holding pens. Our girls were watching the whole thing intently, eyes bugged, nostrils flared so I had to grab my camera. Plus I love any excuse to take a picture of my horse's ass and post it. Doesn't she have a great ass?!?

Anyways, where was I...oh yes...we got tacked up and the half of the indoor arena allotted to warming up seemed a little crowded so we opted to hit the outdoor one for a bit. While I was long trotting a lap to make sure she wasn't going to find anything that would give her an excuse to take off bucking, I was putting a little contact on the reins and thinking something didn't feel right. I looked down at her head and saw that I had apparently lost the chicago screw holding the headstall to my bit. Yikes! I totally had a panic moment of the "oh my god, it's an omen. I shouldn't be riding today. It's a bad sign. I should just stick her back in the trailer, wish the boyfriend luck and call it a day!" Then I laughed at myself, hopped off, unclipped my rein, put it around Midori's neck, walked back to the trailer and found myself another chicago screw. I always keep extras in the trailer cuz you just never know when you will loose one. So, wohoo! Go me! (3-1/2) For not giving in to the panic and just getting back on!

Midori was still a little jumpy and snorty getting warmed up, but nothing uncontrollable. I was having fun on her and while I still had the little nagging voice in the back of my head saying, she could buck! I knew she wouldn't and I trusted her. I do love my horse and I trust her to take care of me. I just have to think ahead and be sure to do what I need to do to keep us in good situations.

Eventually the rain caught up to us, Sugar left us and Midori was starting to get antsy to see her friend. I got a couple good laps out of her, made sure she knew who was in control and that she didn't need her girlfriend by her side in order to survive and then we headed to the indoor arena where it was a little drier. We loped for a good long time in there too and then went over to the rail to watch some of the action.

My practice run was just before my class and I was first in the draw for both. I hate going first! While I was sitting there watching the crazy cows running every where, plowing horses over, scrambling to the wall and getting away from the horse over and over again, I started going to bad places in my head. I started picturing me getting cows like that and Midori freaking out and dumping me. The panic started rising and I was getting nervous. I felt my whole back tense up and my breathing turn a bit quivery. My hands weren't so steady on the reins so I crossed my arms and buried them. I closed my eyes and just sat there, taking deep breaths and trying to be calm for my horse. She knows when I'm nervous.

I decided we needed to ride some more. That seemed to be the only thing that kept my mind out of bad places. There were so many people riding around in the small space that I had to keep my mind in the game otherwise we'd have a wreck on our hands. So we walked some and loped some and I just concentrated on my breathing and not running into anyone. It helped. It cleared my head and made me realize that today Midori was totally solid so I had nothing to worry about. And that was that. My demons were beat. That was the last of my panic for the day. Wohoo! Go me! (4-1/2)

Finally, we are on the last couple riders in the class before my practice run. I loped around a little bit and then I was up. I picked one of the more vocal and helpful herd holders to help me and explained to him that it was my first time coming out of the herd and I just wanted to basically practice going into and coming out of the herd, not so much working. I just wanted to calmly and quietly walk thru the cows. He understood and helped me get the rest of my crew (4 riders out there with you, two herd holders and two turnback riders) and we were off! The herd of cows that I had were pretty jumpy and scattered before I even got into them. I made a couple deep cuts, picked a cow, cut it out, split it off and then turned around to go make another cut. I had 3 minutes to practice and a couple times I brought a cow out that just begged to be worked. So I did! I did get a runner, but it never even crossed my mind to be scared. We were solid. Midori did awesome and though I probably looked like a total newbie out there just screwing around, I wasn't doing that practice run for the working practice. I wanted the time in the herd, to be one with the cows. lol So the practice run was a total success and I walked out grinning ear to ear and hugging Midori's neck. Wohoo! Go me! (5-1/2)

Then it was time for my class. I wasn't worried about it at all. I had just come out of the herd for the first time and I survived! One little cow wasn't anything to worry about! And they weren't! The first cow I got was slow. The turn back riders had to move in a bit to keep her moving, but we got some really nice work with her! I called time with a minute left and they got me another cow. This one came into the arena with tail and head high. Hmmm....My time started again before I had a second to think about the implications. This one was a runner. But we worked it. And we worked it pretty darn well if I do say so myself. Even a couple times when he challenged our space and tried to chargy by on the wall Midori held her ground and we were all over that cow like white on rice! Wohoo! Go me! (6-1/2)

I did get a couple nice reminders of my fall while working that cow though. I have a really nice bruise on the inside of my thigh from (I believe) hitting the horn on my way off. Well, we had a couple hard stops while working that second cow and I slid into the pommel of the saddle. It hurt. A lot. But that didn't stop me! Wohoo! Go me! (7-1/2)

Finally the buzzer sounded, signalling the end of my run. Once again, I walked out of the pen grinning ear to ear. It was great! We scored a 72! Wohoo! Go me! (8-1/2)

I ended up getting second in the class, which also came with a nice little jackpot. Wohoo! Go me! (9-1/2) I don't remember exactly how many people were in the class but I'm pretty sure it was some where in the neighborhood of 6-8.

So it was a great day. Not only did I not hit the dirt, but I had a great practice run and won 2nd place in my class! I'd call that a success!

The boyfriend did pretty well in his classes also. Sugar had only been ridden once since before his surgery and was more then a little high spirited. Luckily she's "well behaved" when she's a spaz so not so much bucking or rearing, just whinnying, squirming, dancing, prancing, wiggle-worming, energizer bunny type stuff. She was still going strong when we walked out of the arena after probably 3-4 hours of loping. I'm totally not kidding. She's the freakin' energizer bunny, just keeps going and going and going and going.

I grabbed my camera after my run and took pictures of the boyfriend's runs and tons of random pictures. 99.9% of them didn't turn out well enough to make it here, but below are some of the ones I liked.

Midori watching the action.

The boyfriend warming up for his first class. That was the calmest Sug looked the whole entire day and I'm sure they only time she walked on a loose rein. I'm glad I caught it on "film" for posterity.

Peekabo! I see you!

After their second class. Don't they look happy? They had a pretty good run!

My pretty pony at the end of the day.



Mom, seriously! Enough with the camera! Will you put the thing down and come get this saddle off me already?!

So that's my loooong story and I'm stickin' to it! I got second place today and I definately did not hit the dirt! Wohoo! Go me! (10-1/2)

Did you ever think you'd read a blog that said "Wohoo! Go me!" 10-1/2 times?!? lol

Sunday Stills Challenge - The Color Red

You wouldn't think it would be all that difficult to find something red to shoot pictures of, but this proved to be a bit of a challenge this week! Especially since I was determined not to pull from archives again!

I'm not super thrilled with the pictures I got, but they qualify so here goes.

First off we have our resident red head Sugar. I never realized she was the same color as the barn until I loaded these pictures.

Later that night when we were eating barbequed bratwurst on the porch, pretending it was summer already, I heard a plane flying over. I could tell it was a small plane and was watching the sky for it to clear the trees. When it finally did I realized it was RED! So here I am trying to grab my camera, turn it on, zoom in, find the blasted plane high in the sky when I am all zoomed in, try to get the stupid camera to focus enough to take a picture that you would actually be able to tell what the thing is, all with a brat in my other hand, trying not to drip mustard on the camera. With all that messing around I only had time to snap one picture before the plane went back behind the trees. It was interesting. Not a great pic, but it was funny and it's a very red plane so I have to post it.

Then I hit Home Depot and found these cute little flowers that completed my third project from last weekend. Before & After coming soon! They are kinda magenta/fuschia-ish, but that qualifies as a shade of red, right?

I also purchased some plants to go in my new "tropical paradise" office/craft room that I'm painting and decorating. I picked out some house plants that I thought looked tropical to stick in there and on the way home realized that this one was red and I could take pictures of it for Sunday Stills! Wohoo!

So there we have it. A few different shades of red for ya. Happy Easter!

Too cute!

These pics aren't the greatest, but I thought they were too cute not to post. We were sitting on the girls waiting around for the awards to be handed out (did I mention I got a buckle?). The cows arrived for the afternoon cutting and the girls had to check them out.

They loooooove the cows.

Then they got bored and started sniffing eachother.

Then they both got an itch and rubbed heads for a bit.

Then they dove for the hay. Brats.

The end!

It's okay...I have a buckle!

Oh ya, you heard right...your's truly has a buckle! I won it fair and square and I'm freakin excited!

I had a few different ideas for titles of this post. The first one I was thinking was The Tortoise and the Hare. It seemed appropriate leading up to this last show if I did happen to get the buckle. While I had won the class once, most of the reason I got the buckle was because I came to every single show, even though I didn't receive any points for the first no score I got. I was the slow and steady, middle of the pack wins the race. Well, this morning I had a pretty good run and I won the class! That makes two first places, a second and some other decent placings that I don't remember. So I feel a little more like I really deserved that buckle and maybe wasn't the slow and steady. Maybe there was some skills involved. Maybe.

Another title I was debating was It Was a Good Day. For obvious reasons. It really was a good day.

I decided on the current title because all day, anything bad or boring or just not great that happened, I would turn around, whip out my buckle and say, "It's okay, I have a buckle!" I was stuck in traffic...It's okay, I have a buckle! Whip it out, admire it at a stoplight. Headed to work on a Saturday, It's okay, I have a buckle! Realize someone forgot to do something important before leaving work yesterday...It's okay, I have a buckle! You get the point. Everything is okay because I'm so stinking excited that I won the buckle!

This is my favorite part...

See that? It says REINING CHAMPION. Me. Reining Champion.

And yes, it was a Beginner class at a small, very casual, very small, very casual winter reining series. Did I mention it was small and casual? It was very small and very casual.

But...I HAVE A BUCKLE!

I do have to thank C.C. Dozing and Mike Crandall for sponsoring the series. They totally rock! They support a lot of events and get us some beeeeautiful buckles! Which I can tell you now from personal experience. Did I mention I have a buckle? *grins*

Oh, and the boyfriend got second in the series. He got a really nice set of reins. They are even light oil so they match his saddle. Maybe now he'll quit stealing mine. He did so awesome! I'm so proud of him. He rocks!!!

Sunday Stills Challenge - Motion

The first Sunday Stills challenge that I am taking is In Motion. "This can be anything that conveys motion." Since the weather around here is horrible this week and I can't really think of any indoor action shots that wouldn't suck, I decided to cheat just a little bit and go back to some older pictures.

This challenge also happens to coincide with a blog that's been percolating in my head since I took these pictures a month and a half ago. It has everything to do with motion and these pictures definately "convey motion"!

First off though, this is my "official entry" for the Sunday Stills Challenge: In Motion...

This was a beautiful, sunny day in January that we pulled the horses blankets and turned our two mares out together to romp and have some fun. This is Sugar and she was not waiting so patiently for her turn. This was about a half a second after her halter was off. Brat. There are a ton more motion shots here, where I originally blogged about that day. I was shooting on the continuous action shot mode. I did make a few minor adjustments in the color and exposure with my Windows Photo Gallery program to perk it up a little bit. Unfortunately, it does not edit out the obnoxious white electric tape fence.

When I was going thru all of the pictures from that day I noticed something interesting. I had to really pick thru the pictures of Sugar to find ones where she didn't look like she was about to fall over or like a complete retard. She just wasn't that graceful looking. Midori, on the other hand, was totally photogenic and I was hard pressed to find a bad action shot of her. Atleast one that was her fault or caught her in a bad position. There were some bad ones, but I was still getting used to my new camera and the bad ones of Midori were mostly my fault.

It is funny looking at it though.

First up, lets look at their roll. It's pretty much the first thing they do when they get out there.

Midori is on the top and this was the goofiest pic of her in the bunch. She is right in the middle of flipping sides so her back is arched and there is a lot of effort going into the roll. She still looks pretty coordinated though. The second pic is Sugar. This was a pretty typical picture of her rolling. Her legs are going every where and I've never seen her roll from one side to the other so all that effort is just going into getting mud on every single square inch of her.

Next up, the running.

Above is Midori running. Perfectly horsie and graceful. Below is Sug running. Perfectly...not horsie or graceful. I don't even know what is going on in the first picture. The last two I was waiting for the nose dive and flip, but somehow she caught herself and kept on going. No idea how she managed that. (Not sure why, but when the sun was bright in the picture it would show streaks, still need to do some research on the new camera to get that to stop, so just ignore the crappy quality of the shot and pay attention to how funny Sug looks!)

And last, their "bucks". I use the quote marks because they are pretty pathetic bucks. Not that I'm complaining.

Above is Midori's "buck". It's decent, coordinated. Spunky, but controlled. In the pic to the right Sug is the red head on the left and that is her "buck", if you can even call it that. I think the tail gives it away. There was obviously some effort, though she just looks gangly and awkward.

It really made me think looking thru those pictures and noticing just how different those girls really move. I wonder why they are so different also. I suppose it could be their age. Midori is coming 7-ish (she's not registered) and Sug is going to be 4 this year. They both look and move great under saddle. Sugar has never struck me as uncoordinated under saddle, just a little baby-ish at times.

The boyfriend says it's because of him, that she's a reflection of him, just like Midori is a reflection of me. lol I'm not sure that's entirely true in this particular case, but I think I'm going to go with it anyways.

So there's my pics of motion. I'm anxious to see what the next challenge is and hopefully I'll be able to actually challenge myself to take some new pics! :-)

What a weekend!

Wow. I'm exhausted. I think it's going to take me the entire week to recover from my weekend! Once again, I'm feeling every one of my 27 years and realizing that I just can't party like I used to. It's sad. We didn't even party like we used to, not at all, but I'm still totally beat. I guess we also used to be able to sleep in til noon after staying out late, but I suppose that's another fun part of getting old...you just can't sleep in any more! Not that we had much of a choice this weekend since it was a winter series weekend.

Our weekend included a bon fire party (well, really a small, totally reasonable recreational fire, since "bon fires" are not legal), the reining show, cleaning paddocks and putting down new hogs fuel for the ponies, clipping horses, washing dirty horse tails, working the butt head (Mister) on the ground, a bachelor party (the boyfriend), a movie night with mom and meeting two of the most adorable corgi puppies on the planet (me, while waiting out the bach party as the boyfriends DD), numbering cows for sorting (the boyfriend, while I tried in vain to sleep in), sorting and drill practice. I also managed to squeeze in some laundry and kitchen cleaning, but no picture loading or blogging for me! Whew, just typing all that makes me want to take a nap. It was a busy weekend.

It was also a totally gorgeous and sunny 60 degrees during the day this weekend and I tried to soak up every bit of it that I could.

Anyways, on to my usual winter series updates. Unfortunately it was a pretty unspectacular weekend. Well, except for the boyfriends absolutely beautiful reining pattern! I wish I could have video'd it for him, as well as his first one of the series. It's amazing to see how much he's improved! I somehow, miraculously, managed to stay on my pattern, though I'm pretty sure it was only because Midori knows it and was on auto-pilot. I had no control. It was all I could do to get her to slow down enough to change leads. She was a naughty, naughty pony. The boyfriend ended up getting 3rd out of 8 riders and I got 4th. There was a rather large gap in the scores between us, but that was the way the placings fell. So now there is one show left and the points for the buckle are pretty darn close. The next show is going to be a nail biter and I'm probably going to fold under pressure. Pressure at horse shows doesn't usually work in my favor. Should be interesting.

Sorting didn't go so hot either. The boyfriend and I got a no time on our run. I did get 6 cows on a couple of my runs, but so far that is where I'm topping out. Midori seemed to be having fun though so that was good. It wasn't a bad day, but the late night Saturday was taking it's toll on us. Neither of us placed with any of our runs so we didn't win any money and it was an expensive day. Still mostly fun, but expensive.

After sorting I had to stick around for drill practice too. The sorting ended up going late so drill practice got started really late and went even later. It was a pretty fun practice though and Midori and I found our second wind. She was tired enough from the weekend that she behaved herself, which was fabulous, but still had plenty of go left to haul ass on the outside of a crack.

I was totally beat by the time I got home. I think Midori has earned a day or two off, I'm sure she's pretty sore too! My butt just wasn't ready for an almost straight 7 hours in the saddle yesterday. And while the majority of it was spent sitting around waiting for our turn sorting, plenty of it was spent riding hard. I started the day off sore from Saturday too since I had ridden hard for quite a while after our no control pattern.

All in all it was a good weekend. The weather was fabulous and I won't ever complain about a weekend spent with my pony. I'm just exhausted and looking forward to some quality time with the couch and my bed this week.

Bummer!

Well, we didn't continue our deja vu with sorting, but we still did alright. Well, the boyfriend did. Which makes twice in one weekend that he's beat me now. He came in 2nd with 9 cows, and 3rd with 7 cows. He and Sugar were on fire this weekend! They did really well.

I did better then last time, I got 6 cows twice, but it wasn't good enough to win this time. Oh well, still improved. And my first run with the boyfriend that got 6 cows did have us leading it for a little while.

All in all it was a fun day and I am learning and getting better. For only my second time ever sorting I think I'm doing pretty good. I also feel like a couple things clicked with me this time. Like how sitting in the gate you can just tip your horses head a little bit and peel a couple unwanted cows off that are coming with the right cow. That was kinda fun! Midori did pretty well, I think she's enjoying it too.

Deju vu...sorta

Not to brag or anything (because you know I would never do anything like that), but for the second show in a row, the boyfriend and I came home with 1st and 2nd place in the beginning reining class. We were pretty darn surprised! Not only because this time there wasn't snow and ice on the ground keeping a lot of people home so we actually had a class of 9 people, but also because the 1st place isn't mine, it's the boyfriend's. It's the first time he's ever beat me.

Honestly, I was pretty darn proud of him! I'm not just saying that to sound like a gracious loser either. He did really good! He had a really good pattern and deserved it. I am really happy for him! I watched him from the in gate and when he finished I was hooting and hollering at him, totally embarrassed him. hehe He got his lead changes, he had nice circles, he had a good stop and back, the whole thing was a vast improvement over some of their other patterns. Especially considering he hadn't ridden Sugar at all since the last show, 4 weeks ago. And he was a little tipsy.

He wasn't even going to come to the show since he hadn't ridden at all, but I dared him to do it with some whiskey in him, mostly so he'd just relax and not fight with his horse, and he won't ever turn down a dare that involves whiskey. :-) So he had whiskey for breakfast and was all relaxed when he went in. Probably started a bad trend there, but it was still really funny that he won.

I will say that we were both pretty shocked when we heard his name for 1st place though. We were walking up to the office when they announced the top 3 placings. They said my name for 2nd and I was happy about that, but certainly would have liked 1st. I felt like I had a really good pattern, but I was first to go in the class so I wasn't holding my breath. Then they sort of paused and said 1st place, paused again and said the boyfriends name. We both looked at eachother and went, huh?!? No way! Then I slugged him in the shoulder and said "you beat me! I can't believe you beat me!" We got into the office and asked the lady if we had really just heard that right and she grinned really big.

So we got our ribbons, our jackpots and the boyfriend got to pick out his crystal trophy. There were champagne flutes, little bowls, candle stick holders and bud vases, the usual assortment of little crystal things and then there was a whiskey bottle. Nothing special, certainly not expensive, but it was a whiskey bottle so the boyfriend grabbed that, saying it was just too appropriate. Then the whole rest of the day he just kept saying, I can't believe I won! hehe It was great!

Since it was such a big class and the people that were at the top of the standings for the series weren't there again, we might actually be leading the standings now. Or atleast close to it. I need to go check that out today. Who'da thunk?!?

So off to sorting this afternoon. Wish us luck!

Naked ponies frolicking

Since it was so sunny and pretty out on Sunday we decided to turn the ponies out naked for a bit. Boy did they have fun!

Midori went out first. This is her "I'm an Arab" look.

This is her "Yeehaw, I'm free!" run.

This is her half assed "Yeehaw, I'm free" buck. I don't mind that she's not a great bucker. :-)

This is her "wohoo, MUD" roll. Check out that lip! Must be a good spot.

Then out came Sugar. This is her going, "sha, FINALLY! I'm outta here!"

And literally, about 3 strides later, she just dropped and rolled. And then got up, switched sides and rolled again.

Then she jumped up and took off towards Midori. I think she was trying to buck in this pic. She can't buck to save her life. Usually about all she accomplishes is a couple really loud farts. It's hilarious!

And a couple of laps later, she's still going strong.

I think they had a blast out there. They came out sweaty, muddy gross messes, but it was worth it to watch them play. And I had a ton of fun with the continuous shoot mode on my camera!

Mister did not have quite as much fun. He isn't as insanely respectful of our dinky fence as the girls are (he likes to walk right under it) so he got turned out in the round pen by himself. Poor guy. He didn't romp around too much. In fact, I don't think I saw him get into more then a nice jog.

He was a dirty, muddy mess by the end of the day though so atleast he got a couple good rolls in!