How I spent my 4th of July

Hi all,

Hoping you are having a great 4th of July weekend and I hope that part of this fun weekend was spent thanking the people before us that made our country such a great place to live and have our freedom.

I had a very enjoyable 4th! I spent the early part of the morning tending my garden.
Have a look see.







The garden is loving all this rain we are having and upon closer inspection, look at what I found:







Oh YEAH kids that is the first tomato of the season! I can almost taste that yummy BLT sandwich now......

I think this week my green beans and a round of cucumbers will also be ready. Which means get out the canner and prepare for some canning. The weather is supposed to turn hot again, always a joy when you are canning. We have been enjoying some nice days in the 70's this past week.

At nine I headed over to the barn to load up Frankie and Susan's other mare Butter.
We decided to celebrate our Independence and go riding! Frankie had never been riding with Butter but they trailered well on the short trip to the reservoir. We met another friend Becky there with her Welsh stallion Wayne. It was cloudy and overcast with rain moving in for the afternoon but we were sure we could get a ride in first. I was pleasantly surprised to find Frankie was relaxed and stood tied like a gentleman to the trailer even when Susan tied Butter to the opposite side.
We rode the same loop that we did last time we rode there. Becky was having some issues with Wayne and his stud like behaviour, he hadn't been out in awhile. Frankie did well with the exception of one incident. I was bringing up the rear of the pack and coming out of the woods into an open area, Butter got out of his eyesight and he starting rushing through a narrow part of the trail. I am not really sure what happened but my best guess is that he got poked in the side by a stick and combined with his nervousness of not seeing the other horses he went into a bucking frenzy.
I was slightly concerned because we came out on the side of a hill and there was an old fence of barbed wire that he was heading for. I did manage to get him stopped and under control before we reached the fence line. Sigh.... young horses.....

Still I am very pleased at his progress and the rest of the day was uneventful for us at least. You may have noticed the new header picture. It is one from yesterday at a small creek we crossed. Frankie was shaking off when Susan snapped it, looks like he is smiling doesn't it??

Here is a shot of Susan and Butter at that creek crossing.







And here is Becky waiting her turn to cross










We made it back to the trailers in about an hour and a half. Becky decided she had enough riding for the day and chose to head home. Susan and I grabbed a quick little snack and mounted back up. We decided to try the other side of the road trails. It was more hilly and the horses were a little winded being that neither of them were all that fit just yet. We did see lots of these.








No, not the cedar trees although there were plenty of them. Look to the right of that cedar can you see the deer? She was pretty far away but the only one that would stand still long enough to let me snap a picture.

We rode for another hour and then the weather started to move in. One good thing about it was that I got to put my slicker on while mounted on Frankie. A first for him and as usual he was non plussed about it. Baby steps each ride and soon he is gonna be as Susan put it "old reliable". Kind of a nice thought!






Happy trails!