In which I have the best kind of weekend: with friends, trails and horses

For some reason, I had three days off in a row, with minimal obligations at home. How often does that happen?

Gee, I wonder what I could possibly do with all that time....

Day One

Madeline asked, "Do you still want to go if it rains?" Hey, I've got raingear. Let's go!
Fiddle wasn't sure that crossing the creek was really necessary. She crossed it, though. Last winter this crossing washed out so completely that Jim and I came through here and closed it for the winter. It's mostly "repaired" now...or at least it is now washed out in a much safer way.
We needed new profile photos for our Facebook accounts.
Of course, we were both so bundled up in raingear, you can barely tell it's us.
A rainy day on horseback with Maddy. Nice.

When we got home, Jim had a a beautiful fire and a platter of chicken marsala for us. Oh yes, life is good!

Day Two

Fiddle's feet were tender after the barefoot ride yesterday, so I decided to ride Hana solo. Hana is usually the horse who stays home with the goats while Fiddle goes away so she was very surprised when I handed her a cookie and put her in the trailer!

Wow, different perspective. I'm not only used to the ears in front of me being a different color...
..I'm used to them being much further away from my camera!
Hana is practically the Perfect Horse.

She doesn't need to debate about crossing the creek, she just crosses it. She picks up the canter (both leads) without bucking. She is willing to try anything, and her first answer to any question is "YES!" (Those who know Fiddle will testify that, while she will do anything and go anywhere, she always feels the need to say "NO" first. Then she will go and do).

Hana is everything that veteran endurance rider Julie Suhr recommends in a horse:

Safe.

Short.

And smooth.

She is also very sweet.
And pretty. It's actually hard to take a bad picture of her. I tried. No luck. She's just pretty.

I had a wonderful ride. Hana is a lot of fun to ride.

And yet, I missed Fee.

Day Three

Hana would never be so rude as to stick her head in my pockets while I'm buckling my spur straps. Fiddle wants to be sure that I put cookies in my vest pockets before we leave the trailer.

The new Easyboot Gloves haven't arrived yet, so I strapped on some old-style Easyboots to protect her tender feet--hopefully, this is the last time I have to use them!
We left the parking lot, and the mares were happy to be out again. I experimented with some of the extra settings on the camera, and turned around to take this picture of Jim and Hana trotting while I was trotting ahead on Fiddle.

Then, I turned forward again and took a picture of Fee's mane and forelock blowing back as we continued to trot.

She didn't break her rhythm at all as I was twirling in all directions with the camera--she just kept trotting. Wheeeee!
Down to the creek crossing. Are we going to have to talk about this again?
No, not really. I swear, sometimes she only fusses to make sure I know she's still awake.
Another beautiful day on the trails--no rain, either.
When we got home, I realized that I had that goofy smile on my face. That stupid grin, you know? That smile that you see on the faces of people who have been happy for hours and hours.

You know?

Yeah.

That smile.