What a wonderful weekend to ride!  The temperatures were wonderful, the sun was shining and the mosquitoes haven’t started yet.  I took Cole on a short ride with my sister and boyfriend on Friday evening.  The horses were great.  I then took Cruiser on a short, fast ride, and we had fun. 

Saturday, my younger niece came out to ride.  She rode Ranger, my sister rode Cole and I rode Cruiser.  We went on a nice and totally uneventful ride.  That’s how we like them.  We did a fair amount of trotting.  Cruiser set the speed, which was fairly slow, so my sister and niece had it easy.  We then brought her to Burger King for lunch to fuel her up so she could earn her keep.  We took her to my house where she helped rorotill my garden, put up the electric fence and set up the hoses.

Sunday, my sister and I took Cole and Ranger out for a longer ride to the Brookpark Bridge.  We did a lot of trotting and a bit of cantering.  Ranger is supposed to lead during the canter.  This is Ranger’s rule.  Cole hasn’t figured out how to canter quite yet.  He does more of a hand gallop. Once we get close to Ranger, and I ask him to slow down, no matter how gently I do it, he goes back to a trot.  We will get is all figured out.  He just needs practice.  I then took Cruiser on a walking ride with my sister on foot to keep us company.  He loves walking with her.  I’m sure he likes her more than he likes me.

I got some of my garden planted, and then it was time to go hiking with my boyfriend.  We went on the Canal to see the bald eagle nest.  We saw both parents and the baby.  Then we went a bit further up the trail to see the bridge that the anarchists tried to blow up a couple weeks ago.  We are glad they were foiled.

I was exhausted after all this and could barely keep my eyes open long enough go through Thunder’s nightime bedtime rituals.  Play with feather, eat, play throw, eat, play follow, drink, cuddle, sleep…