Ele, Bryson, Shi & Tristan

The weather took wonderful care of us this weekend. It was about 50 degrees and did not start to rain as predicted until we were just finishing up and ready to leave. Perfect!

Rob and Tristan stayed for about half an hour after bringing Shiloh. His big sister was happy to help Tristan learn to lead Obie. Shiloh had a new helmet today and Tristan INSISTED on having a helmet for himself. So ... he wore mine ... and it fit! The kid has a big head! The kids are starting to get the routine, which is a blessing. We arrive, we get Obie out of his stall. They clean and pet and talk to him and then trade off who is running around with him while the others are cleaning his stall run. Once that is managed and moving smoothly, we take out Pinta and start the same process with her.

This week Julie worked on her leadership skills while she gave each child a turn in the saddle. We decided they were solid at trotting on line, and so Ele, Bryson and Shiloh each had a few turns at trotting the half-circle of the driveway with Julie leading (jogging) and the child learning to balance at the trot. They all did terrific. Ele and Shiloh are having a wonderful time playing together. They were in and out of the Volvo just like last weekend -- playing with Obie, playing with Pippi, pretending they were each dogs themselves, giggling, giggling, giggling.

After that we moved on into working Pinta under saddle by her rider. Julie first. She rode circles both ways practicing start, stop, turn. After a wee bit of frustration they started working together well. Every rider must learn to communicate with their mount. Often riders don't take the time to learn the language and instead expect the horse to be more like a machine. Our goal is to make sure the communication comes first. Pinta expects the consideration of being asked. Once she and Julie got the basics down, they were having quite a good time. She was calm enough to let Bryson do the same and they both had a good time. Today was Bryson's first time on a horse and he did a terrific job. When we left the horses were happy and comfortable in their runs and the children were relaxed and smiling.