Just Some Ponies Having Fun

 Despite all my talk about self care, old habits die hard and I've signed up for some extra hours at work. I may have finally learned my lesson a little though, because I go back to my normal horse friendly schedule after Christmas with no plans of changing it any time soon!

I did plan ahead and leave some hours free late Wednesday afternoons, so I get horsey time then and on weekends. My husband has the time, so he's been driving up to feed the horses in the morning. He usually mucks out too, which probably makes me 11/10 spoiled. If I'm being honest, I really like the day to day care aspect of horses and feel a little guilty he's taken some of it on, so I miss it. But, he's happy doing it too and it's kind of fun that we negotiate who's doing what chores because we both like doing them. I'm pretty sure Bridget still likes him best, but Sophie's a good girl and remembers who pays the bills ;)

Who's a good girl? Actually, never mind, sorry Sophie, by all objective calculations that would be Bridget.

Anyway, Wednesday. My mid week day to get out. It was a bit of a failure this week. We've had gorgeous sunshine-y days, but yesterday the fog never lifted and with it getting dark I felt like it was just too unsafe to lead two horses down the road to the arena. (I'm STILL waffling over the new vs used trailer situation, BTW. I know the simpler used one is the way to go but my heart really wanted the shiny new one with all the options and my husband was kind of 'meh' over the used one too)

Is a good girl

So, I had two hyped up ponies, a dark and foggy afternoon and nowhere to go. I briefly thought about turning them out in a bigger field together to burn off some energy playing, but the fields are sadly still too wet right now for the kind of damage I suspect the ponies want to inflict on them.

Off to the little used round pen we went. The footing is a bit below average and overgrown in the centre, but the horses seem to handle it just fine and both really enjoyed having an opportunity to play and show off a little. 

Her best impression of a pony potato

If we're being completely honest, I recognize there are times a round pen is useful for training, but the day to day of tying my girls to groom and tack, then walking them down the road to the arena on a regular basis seems to be enough to keep manners and responses well tuned out of the saddle.  So, rather than an educational place, the round pen at the farm has instead evolved to a place for them to go have fun. Which, I think is a good thing, because generally speaking I am not a lot of fun and I don't let them play on the longe or under saddle. Plus, it's great for pictures :)

Is a dolphin?

So fierce, B, so fierce ;)

Is tired now.