Monday Pony Time

After a slow rocky start to the day (Mondays seem to be like that, after working the weekend, I think I'm too spent to do anything), it ended up being a good day that went well into the night with Amie and I still at the barn, playing with and sprucing up our ponies.  After staff meeting, we spent several minutes talking about the issue of a hog farm trying to get a permit to build a 1000+ animal facility less than a mile from us.  Obviously we are very concerned because of the smell and health concerns.  I'm all for agriculture, but keep that farm away!  (Please pray that the zoning permit will not be allowed.  This barn will be directly west of us and as you probably know, most of our wind is from the west.)  Anyways, after feeding we had to pick up a (FAT!) pony from Delphi and then I drove up north past Buffalo to drop off two more horses and pick up another.  By the time I got through all of this (none of which were a part of my plan), it was time to play with the ponies.  I continued to work with Max, our little boy.  The funniest part of the day occurred while I was working with Max on the ground.  He was a little more squirrelly than normal and quicker.  I had just made the comment, "Boy, he's a little fresh today."  Truer words were never spoken as at that moment, he reared up, turned and took off the other way.  I tried my best to hold on but once I got to the end of the rope and my feet had dug into the arena as much as they could, I fell down and let go.  Max ran through where Amie was lunging Nina and she started cracking up as she saw me on the ground laughing as well and shaking my head in disbelief at my prophetic words.  She said that all she heard was me say, "Boy, he's a little fresh today," and then Max was running past her.  :-)  He was a good boy while I rode him though.  We'd taken Flicka and Haddie up top yesterday so that Amie's kids could ride when they got home from school.  Braydn got to ride Haddie for a bit, learning to steer her through obstacles.

After dinner, I headed back to the barn where I lunged and rode Anthony until Amie came back from putting the kids in bed.  She started clipping up Tuni giving him a hunter clip while I pulled Anthony's mane, brushing out his tail and cutting it, and clipping up his face.  After we were done, our ponies looked spiffy!  It was also 10:30 by the time we got everything cleaned up and we headed home.  Good day.  Ready for a day off tomorrow!

Pulling Anthony's Mane

Clipping

Anthony's Tail

Tuni!

Lookin' Good!