Happy Kansas Day!

Today is the 150th anniversay of the day Kansas became a state and boy, what a day to celebrate! I believe we had record-breaking temps (on the good side--nice and warm!) over the past two days, which meant it was time to get some things accomplished!

I lucked out and was able to get off work at noon Friday, so I rushed home to get some painting done on the underside of the roof. Unfortunately I found the trim had not been done, which meant I'd have to buy some, so I couldn't get any painting done. That meant I'd have to "suffer" and ride my horses. Oh dang!

In case you can't tell, I am being facetious.

First, I tried my new show saddle on Paula without a pad, to make sure it fit and didn't pinch her anywhere.


It fits great! We're just about ready--I just have to buy her a tail extension.


Her tail looks so white from afar, but up close she has lots of gray in it, just like her owner.

In my hair, not my tail. Contrary to popular belief, I don't have a tail.

I rode Paula yesterday and she was just unbelievable. While most horses take their time off to completely forget most the things they were taught, Paula seems to think on her lessons and grow with time off. It had been a month since I had ridden her last, and yet she was slower, more collected, more responsive and more overall polished than she has ever been. Today I rode her again and found that she knows how to sidepass, which is kind of amazing since I've never taught her that.

To say Paula is willing is an understatement. She's the horse equivalent of an "easy button." I am so very thankful for her. She's a working girl's dream horse.

Earlier today I left for the big city nice and early to order another horse shelter!

It will be a lot like this one--same color and build. This one is a 24x12 shelter with a 6' tack room. The new building will be 12 x 18 without a tack room. It will go beside this one, about 20 feet away, and Dad and I will be installing continuous pipe fencing along the entire north side (and hopefully the front of the place as well). That will get me set up with a shelter for the "regular" horses and two stalls for the show horses and should tide me over pretty well until I can get a real barn built one day.

I've also been working with Betty some. She's such a good-minded filly. We've had a lot of lessons on giving to pressure and she's responding so nicely. She still needs a ton of work on her trust issues, but once she's over that, she's going to be such a great show filly. She's the cutest mover, too!

Speaking of cute mover, I was able to finally work Bambi under saddle again some. She's still a little skiddish but she picked up on the driving really well.

I also worked Fabian some. He's a little further along than Bambi is and he's a lot less skiddish. He loves to be worked with and always tries to make a game of it.

Fabian also caught onto driving well. He's nice and soft and responsive, too. My goal is to be able to take him trail riding on the anniversary that I got him--around the end of June.

It wasn't all work, though! The "kids" had plenty of play time. Paula and Moose ran around like banshees.

I love my beautiful girl (sorry, I just had to say it).

Moose says "I didn't see nothin," but I don't really believe him.

He looks guilty to me.

And dirty!!

See what I mean! Dirty tricks!!!

This was an "oops" shot when Moose got the in the way (Fabian wasn't too happy about it), but I think it looks kind of neat anyway...

Paula and Fabian face off....

It's sort of funny but these two like to play really hard. They definitely have a love-hate thing going, like most siblings do.

Moose can't even leave Fabian long enough for a good roll. What a dork!

That's it for the pictures, and the warm weather, too, I'm sorry to say. Kansas is such a tease...70 degrees one day, then 30 the next. Still, there's not place like home.

Off to see the wizard,