Barns, Mules and Granddaughters

The "boys" (Prize and Louie) were funny last night when I went to bring them in for the night. Tracy and I have been putting the two boys together in a pasture and Marie in a separate pasture alone. There are horses beside Marie, and she can watch the boys from where she is. She seems to be content with this situation. Without a woman to fight over, the boys are getting along well and seem to enjoy each other's company and having a buddy to play with. I brought Marie in first as usual last night. Then went down for the boys. They were both at the gate very eager to come in neither one liking to be left behind. Of the boys, I've been bringing Prize in first since I already know from experience he can and might come through the fence if left behind. Louie seems to have a deep respect for electric fencing and I trust him more to stay on the right side of the fence. And so far he has. He run, and paws and bellows but he has not yet challenged the fence.

Anyway, when I went down to get them, they were both right there at the gate and when went to put Prize's halter on him, he eagerly shoved his head right in.........and Louie sidled right up and tried to shove his head into Prize's halter at the same time! It was pretty funny. And it was good to see that the boys were showing no irritation with each other at all. Prize seemed perfectly willing to share his halter. Silly boys. The strange thing about all their eagerness to be caught at night, once up in the barn, neither one wants to go in their stall. What's with that......

My granddaughter Madison spent this weekend with us. So, on Saturday, Fred gave me a free pass away from barn building so Madison and I could have a girls day. I took her shopping in the morning. Where did we shop you ask? Well at the tack shop of course! We went up to Adams Horse and Pet Supply to buy her a riding helmet. Madison has not ridden much up to this point. But, she is 7 years old now and showing some interest in riding. The few times she has gotten on a horse or mule here, she's just worn her bike helmet. But, I told Fred if she is going to ride more, she needs a proper equestrian helmet. And would have to have one to ride at Upper Pond stable. When we got to Adam's Supply, I was very pleased to find an old friend, Halla,  I haven't seem in a long time working there. It was so nice to see her and we got the very best of service in finding just the right helmet for Madison. I also bought some "buddy" stirrups. This is a pair of stirrups made for children that hang off the saddle horn of a western saddle when their legs are too short to reach the regular stirrups.

Later that afternoon, I took Madison over to Upper Pond Stable and she had her first riding lesson on Marie. Marie is SUCH a wonderful girl and just perfect for teaching Madison. And what is kind of neat is Madison's mother, Holly, learned to ride on Marie. Though Marie was young then and not such a good girl as she is now. Madison did wonderful. She listened to everything I told her. I did keep her on a lunge line but she was steering and controlling Marie pretty much on her own. Madison noticed the dressage letters on the arena wall and I would call a letter and have her ride to it. Madison learned to stop and back Marie. We even did a little trotting. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait until our next lesson!!

Sunday was back to barn building. Not so much fun for Madison (or me) but she was a very good girl all day hanging out with us as we worked. She entertained herself well with the help of Zephyr, Shiloh and the guinea hens. Fred and I got all of the floor joists for the 2nd floor and up ready to be nailed. Today we got about half of them nailed in place. The weather, after the stupid snow storm, has been great. Today was very warm and most of the snow is melted now.

Floor joists in place!!!! Yippee!