In which this is another post about horses, horses, and more horses

Here in the Swampland, we're a little bit confused by blue sky weather, but we know EXACTLY what to do when the sun comes out:

That's a (well-behaved) stallion off the port bow
...and Fiddle doesn't even care.

go riding, of course.

Photobomb!

Friday afternoon, Duana and I took a lesson.

In the outdoor arena.

Duana and Hana are making amazing progress together

In the sunshine.

It doesn't happen all the time, but increasingly often
riding the Dragon feels like dancing

O.   M.   G.

I had to take a break after 20 minutes and put on more sunscreen.  

Then it was Becky's turn for a quick lesson.  It's been two days, and I'll bet money that Becky is still feeling the sore muscles from Dory's warm-up routine.

This one builds core and inner thigh muscles.

But riding was only part of the excuse reason for Becky's visit:  she wanted to see some Standardbreds!  I'm sure she plans to blog about the trip in detail, so I'll only post a few teaser pics here.

Heart to Beat.  If she ever makes an endurance horse,
she needs to register with AERC as "The Roller Derby Queen"

We headed north, to the boarding stable in Langely BC that houses Greener Pastures Standardbred Adoption Agency.

We saw lots of standies, and each of them tried to convince us that she (or in the case of Chester, "he") was the most charming.

Yes, Chester is a red standardbred!

But the clear winner of the "charm" tiara is a filly called Red Star Vamp.

Alina takes seriously her responsibility to make standardbreds adoptable!

Vamp is only 2 years old (3 year birthday next weekend), so she's technically younger than Becky's ideal horse.  However, she seems to come from the same line of standies as Sky's mare Cricket, who convinced everyone that she was an adult horse at age 3!

I really hope Becky puts the video of Vamp on her blog.  If she doesn't, I'll post it here in a few days--nice moving horse!

"Take a picture of me looking too big beside this horse."
Huh?  Looks fine to me!

And she's a sweet one, too.

Becky and Vamp are both pretty sweet!

Too much cuteness and sweetness?  The Dragon has a cure for that.

I took her out for a final spin before I pack up all our gear for the Mt Adams Endurance Ride next weekend.

All business, no cuteness.
At least, not where anybody will see it.

Undeterred by the return of the rain, the Dragon and I had a great quick ride this afternoon: almost 9 miles in about 90 minutes.  Not bad at all.

But of course, Fee is proudest of her Eating Skillz.




All on a loose rein, obviously--my hands were on the camera!

It's.  Just.  All.  Good.