Proud mom right here

Yesterday was nothing short of glorious. The sun shone brightly and the temps were in the 70's. A light breeze played with the tree tops and the leaves were beginning to change. I thought, "what a perfect day for a trail ride". Saturdays are Amanda's days to ride so I asked around the barn to see if anyone would like to take her out and show her the trails. My barn owner and another boarder said they'd love to, so when Amanda arrived I asked if she wanted to go and she said, sure!

She got Lucy tacked up and I tried to hide how nervous I was. Lucy had gone out on the trails that day we found the lady stuck in the swamp, and I had hand-walked her out there a bit throughout her time off, but I was still worried that she would be spooky and stupid.

Amanda chose to ride in the Western saddle and as the three riders were heading out, I said, "heels down and have fun!" and then spent the entire time they were out on the trails cleaning frantically to keep my mind off of it!

Bottom line is that all three riders returned still in the saddle, horses looked sooo happy and relaxed, and Lucy was a "total superstar"!!! She led, she walked calmly on the buckle, she had happy ears, and she was so happy to be out in the woods again.

Plus, I ended up with a very clean barn! haha.

As much as I wanted to stuff the horse full of cookies for being so good, I realised that this could be my last chance to give her a bath until the Spring, so I was a mean person and bathed her. She was like, I was THAT good and this is the thanks I get?! but she tolerated it well. Then I let her graze for about an hour in the sunshine so she dried off before I turned her out in her (dirt) paddock with a huge pile of hay. She was a very happy horse!

In other news, Kenny surprised me this week with a gorgeous new camera, a Canon 6D, so expect some new and hopefully improved photos! Here's one of Lucy from the other day:

And one of Cairo: