Corrupt them while they are young

My sister came for a visit. Actually, she had to bring Kid #1 home from Girl Scout camp and she had intended to paint the kids' bedrooms in the new house. Unfortunately, we have not yet closed on the house(we are currently only 9 days late)
With any luck we will have closed by next week. So, instead, she brought one of her students out and we played with the horses. Student has a Morgan mare. She has now been brainwashed. She fell in love with Belle. She called her mom and now wants a Clydesdale.

(See, horses DO come in bigger sizes! It IS possible for a horse to be taller than 15 hh.(just a dig at my sister's tiny herd:))

She does NOT want a mule. There was one at the arena that would not stop braying. It was really annoying and funny. She loves Belle's smooth gaits. Belle was not really sure of her ability for a while and did not want to canter, but eventually she did. I told her that she needs to move to Wyoming and that she will need to come visit or Lady will be rideable before she can convince her mother to move here. (She also fell in love with Lady -- What's not to love? She is such a love bug)



I had forgotten how good my niece is at riding. She loped around on Foxy like a fly on Flypaper. Her butt never left that saddle. Unfortunately, our new pony was still in Cheyenne until we move(I will get to that later), so we had 6 kids and two adults sharing 2 horses. Lady and I worked on halter training. Some days she leads better than others.

I also made the 6 kids walk the 6 dogs.

I have Shooter, my sister has a small beast that yaps, and my friend has four. It was pretty funny watching three aussies, a corgi, a heeler, and a beast go for a walk. The beast was carried alot. The heeler and Shoot love to run. But it was hot, so the kids walked from shade to shade. Shooter had to go on the trail later to get his exercise.

The bugs are really bad. I finally remembered to buy some fly spray when we drove up to the city to go shopping. Lady was her normal self. I sprayed her down, she stood there, not caring. Belle spun around her stall wigging out until she finally stood there and took it. They all got wormed, as well. Belle thought about being a brat, but I think that it had more to do with the horde of people, than the wormer. Fox was a brat, but my sister hung on until I could get the tube into her mouth, then Fox let me squirt it in. Lady stood, let me put the tube in her mouth, spit out the wormer. I adjusted the dial, put more in, she ate it, all while not having a halter on. The imprint training with spray bottles, tubes, clippers, and tons of time; it has all paid off. As feisty as that little girl is, I would have an out of control three month old with out the constant work.

So back to the pony. I bought the kids a welch pony. She is 13'1. (at least she is supposed to be small, not like two of my sister's Morgans that are 13'3)
A Friend of mine bought her for her daughter a few years ago, put a ton of training into her, but the girl would not ride her and then my friend's mom bought her daughter a horse that she loves and adores and she now the daughter has a reason not to ride Babe (Yes, it has been pointed out that I seem to have a fetish with feminine horse names i.e. Belle, Foxy, Lady, and now Babe, I can't explain it)
So now I have a small sorrel mare that Kid #1 and #2 can ride. Technically, I can ride her too( my friend did and although I might outweigh her, I have longer legs and can probably distribute it better), she never tires and is a speed demon on barrels. Lady loves to tease her. I was trying to get my sister to buy her for my "fly on flypaper" niece, but My sister was not biting. So she went out to pasture in Cheyenne. I broke down and agreed to buy her (I agreed when my friend was in Vegas and she called in a panic that her daughter was given the new horse -- the girl had quit riding the pony months ago) but she is still in Cheyenne until we move to the new house. I don't want to pay board on a fourth horse while the kids are back in Utah. (two left today, then we all leave for the weekend. Then they won't be back until we move) This is not the greatest pic, but it was before we decided that we NEEDED her so, I don't have any great pics.

(yep, the stirrups are way too short, Kid #1 is not wearing boots, helmet, etc. It was a warm up in the round pen, which reminds me; when my sister was here, she mentioned helmets for her kids. For a split second, I was confused,my kids rarely wear helmets while riding. not the best option, but it is what it is)