Summer comes to the farm - at the end of October???

Yes, that's right...  Summer arrived this morning.  She is an adorable little paint mare who belongs to Tarra and Christopher.  She has already started to make a friend of Starlight and I'm hoping in a few days to try them together.  Summer is only 3 years old, she'll turn 4 in January, so I expect she will grow and fill out and learn a lot in the coming months.  She has a deep voice (for such a little thing), and had no qualms about telling me she wanted her dinner when I was making up the feed.  I had to tell her to wait because it's not dinner time yet - she wanted it NOW!!!  Tonight she'll have Shady on one side and Sassy on the other (plus Starlight at the other end of the barn and you have the 4 S's in a row).  Hopefully they'll all get along overnight - I will be turning the fence ON!

Perfect Ride

Last Sunday, October 10th, Carla, Kate, Jean and I went for a 15 mile ride. We had a blast! It was a perfect day weather wise, cool but not cold, sunny, beautiful blue sky, couldn't ask for better! I rode Jazz, Carla was on Scotty, Kate rode Becca and Jean was on her new boy Badger (she changed his name from Caesar). We went through 2 covered bridges, over trails and dirt roads, and on a little bit of paved road including a quarter mile on Rte. 103. We did a LOT of trotting and cantering, and we had some tired horses when we got home - but they were all good, no sore muscles.

 Kate, Jean and Ann headed up Dutton Rd.

 Jean, Kate and Carla.

 Crunching through the fallen leaves.

 Through the 2nd covered bridge, not the best photo but it's hard to get one in a bridge.

 The trail to the top of Mt Ephriam.

 Boedeker Rd.

 Chatting on Williams River Rd - the 1st covered bridge is at the end of this road.

 This river goes under the 2nd covered bridge, shown below with Kate and Becca.

What a gorgeous day and beautiful view!  Taking a break below, about half way home.

Teeth

Dolly, Scotty and Shady all had their teeth done this week.  I was able to video Shady's dentistry and put together a sampling of what she had done.  You should know that all the horses get sedated before we start.  The thing in Shady's mouth is a speculum, lightweight because it's made of aluminum, it holds her mouth open and keeps her from biting the tools and Heather.  Heather uses a dental mirror (on a very long handle), a couple of different kinds of files (long and short), a long pick, a big syringe for rinsing - since they can't really rinse and spit like we can, and the electric drill which has a rotating disc on the end that files down the sharp points on the teeth.  NONE of this hurts the horse.  You may see Shady react by pulling back at times, that's not because of pain, the filing vibrates and makes noise and that is what the horses react to.

Tootsie