Let the games begin!

My goodness.  I have been one negligent blogger! 

The Thursday Night Horse Exercise team were pretty pleased with the mild winter.  Unlike previous winters, we could do more than just scoop the frozen poop, count horses and get in our cars to defrost.  We had many new young volunteers who braved the unheated barn to learn to groom and care for Rainy Moon and Hannah.  I hope they keep coming as I hardly got to yell at them at all (sorry, Penguin, you must have taught me patience!). 

The Minnesota Horse Council gave RideAbility a grant for an independent saddle which we received in February (or early March).  This will be a great addition to our tack.  Many of us have tried it out. Jacob and I think it is like riding in a pod racer (yeah, well, we're nerdy like that).  We have been just trying it on Hannah so far, but she seems to get the hang of it.

The Memorial Luncheon was in March and we all had a great time.  We had an awesome magician, Michael, who kept everyone entertained and the meal was great!

Spring classes started a few weeks ago and last through the second week of March.  It has been fun to see so many familiar student faces.  The weather has been pretty cooperative, which is always a bonus.  We always have room for more volunteers.  The summer session starts in May.

The Barn Dance is on June 2; the Pine Island Parade is June 9 (Janet and I are itching to get the fjords on the rode!); Pony Up is June 16; the Zumbrota Parade is also June 16 (yes, delusional Leslie thinks we can do both).  To get all the news, check out the calendar on the website (www.rideability.org).

When learned our lessons and applied them well

On Saturday we learned, from Michael Richardson, that to go from here:

to here:

we only need to remember: keep it real, no BS and patience. We got to see a great demostration and I'm hoping one of our many competent volunteers (Marisa...hint hint) to write a blog about working with Michael and his wife Tiffany (check out their website http://www.brokenrranch.com/).

Those lessons came in handy on Sunday, when Janet, Nancy and I decided to take a nice early (ha!) Sunday morning ride.

Before a ride they look so clean!

We left the barn with Janet on DeeDee, Nancy on Hannah and me on Soleil. We came back to the barn with me on DeeDee, Nancy on Hannah and Janet on Soleil. DeeDee had some other ideas about going for a ride (she either didn't want to go or she wanted me to ride her...I'm flattered).

Thankfully, Janet only has a minor injury and got to ride on an ATV; and DeeDee made it back to familiar territory without hurting herself. But what is best for naughty horses, turning right around and going back out. Janet and I traded horses and the rest of the ride was uneventful. I made sure to thank Janet for wearing DeeDee out for me! Ha! Those of you that are familiar with Hannah on a trail ride...yes, she stalled for the first mile thinking Nancy would give up, but it wasn't to be so.

We practiced Michael's lessons: Janet knows the ground is real hard, DeeDee knows that I tolerate no BS and Hannah knows that Nancy has patience!

Stinky smelly after shots (horses, not women...we glisten).

In which we learn that Dorie can jump over a fence very quickly

Never a dull moment.......................

Jaabeil has seemed a bit calmer, so Dorie brought him out to the round pen. He was fine for awhile, but I looked over and saw her jumping out of the round pen. Good jumping skills, Dorie!

DeeDee was going to get some new shoes on Thursday, but she got shots instead. I would protest as well. Shoes are always better than shots!

The weather was weird...raining..sunny....calm...windy. It was muddy and slippery.

The outdoor arena was very wet. Poor Soleil....it is hard walking in really wet sand when you have hooves the size of dinner plates!

Human participants: Peggy, Jennifer, Amanda, Janet, Penguin, Dorie, Leslie

Horse participants: Hannah, DeeDee, Merit, ZoMeister, Soleil, Lilly, Chocolate