Clean as a Whistle

I'm back for about a week and then I'm off again to work the U.S. Women's Open Championship which will be held in Pittsburgh. This doesn't give me a whole lot of time to work my horses and progress with our riding.

I went out to check on Ollie and Toby, make sure they were up on their supplements and feed - I have to bag Ollie's feed (Kalm & EZ) since it's not what the barn normally feeds. I was curious to see how Ollie looked and if he was getting enough to eat. He looked like he lost a little weight so I'm upping the amount of feed. Feeding, I'm learning is never an exact science. Eyeballing your horses to see how they look and feel is, in my opinion, the best method. Toby looked great. He's got a nice shiny coat, dapples, good weight, good attitude. Both boys needed their feet done and now we can check that off the list of "things to do before I go again."

I'm a little disappointed that my new saddle has not yet arrived. I'm a real anxious annie about it...

But otherwise, I'm happy to see my boys and get my equine therapy. Not surprisingly, Ollie was a muddy mess so he was first on my list to tackle the dirt issue. I like to call these kinds of days the "My Pretty Pony" days. I bathed him, which he usually fusses over his hind end getting wet. He's a clever horse, he protests by swinging and kicking out with the opposite hind leg from the side that I am on. He's talking loud and clear to me that he doesn't like it in a threatening/non-threatening manner. It cracks me up. After he endures the bath, I always take my horses out for a pick of grass as a reward. Ollie is realizing that this isn't so bad. In fact, it's darn good.

Once he dried off, I felt like I needed to take pictures of him for all of you. June is a beautiful time of year in northern Michigan and all the wild flowers are blooming. I put Ollie out in Jag's old paddock. The barn owners father had spread out wild flower seeds in the paddock last year in honor of Jag. Last summer they didn't really bloom but this year they are beautiful. So I had to take pictures of my guy Ollie enjoying Jag's wildflowers...