It was another great weekend at Tired Dog Ranch. This post will be a bit long. Even so, I am not capturing all the fun. That would be just impossible.

Saturday, I ponied Rita from Lily and took her on a short walk through the woods. Romina and Megan worked with Abby, Luna and the mini-donk sisters, Tallula & Pebbles. Since I don’t have a horn on my saddle, I had to lock my hand to my hip at times to pull, not so little, Rita along. She got the idea and did really well through the woods. Meanwhile, Sally and Megan were mushroom hunting with Pebbles and Tallula in tow.

Towards the evening, I got Luna out and took her to the round pen. I ended up getting on her bareback for a few turns and a short trot. I had tried a Wintec dressage saddle on her, but we didn’t have a short enough girth to use with it. She was fine bareback, though she did want to stay by the gate. It was getting dark and plans were made to ride again in the morning with Luna and Lily. The evening progressed with much talking and eating and enjoying of eachother’s company. I was tired from a busy day and retired to the Cowboy Cabin and a warm wood stove. I think I was in bed by the unheard of hour of 10 o’clock.

Sunday morning arrived overcast with a slight threat of possible rain. We convened at the lower pasture sometime late morning and gathered our crew of equines, Lily, Luna, Luis, Pebbles and Tallula. A different saddle was tried on Luna and a sidepull bridle. Romina tried her out in the round pen first, then I got on. She’s been a mom for a while now and could use a little tune up. She was good with both of us though, so I took her out in the meadow. Romina tried Lily and we had a good few rounds. Luna has a very nice trot, smooth and with energy. We all ended up taking the woods trail. When Romina and I got ahead of the other with Luis, Luna’s colt, she got a little anxious and called for him. She was still wiling and did as asked. It was a very fun and productive ride, even though we did get rained on.

On our return, Luis and Luna were put back in the pasture. Lily came with me up to the parking area and my trailer. I’ve had loading issues with her since last year after she was leased out. I was prepared to take the rest of the day to calmly work on it. The day before, I had asked her to load. I had a bale of alfalfa hay inside that I’d just bought at the feed store. This turned out to be far too tempting and before Lily knew what had happened, she had all four feet in the trailer! Previously, she would put her front feet in, but the back feet took a lot of work. Today, she had second thoughts about loading a couple of times, but got over that pretty quickly. I took her in and out repeatedly, closing the door once too. It was a pleasure having her load well. If it takes having a bit of alfalfa in the manger, that’s fine with me for now!

As I drove out, Luna, Luis and Rita were huddled by the front gate. I felt sorry for Rita the most. She looked a little forlorn. On arriving at my barn, I put Lily out with Vin. He nickered and pranced up to her and was very happy to see her. After checking out the paddock, Lily kept watching the distance for every horse that she could see. She didn’t call once though, just watched. I brought them into their stalls to see how it was with the wall between them partially removed. It was fine. They ate dinner and then I put them out again. They both scarfed up the alfalfa crumbs I dumped from cleaning the truck out. Sarbjit and Hargobind stopped in to help. That was nice.

By the time I left, Lily was allowing Vinnie to groom her withers. She even groomed him back a little. I think that his gregariousness might just make Lily less aloof. Her udders are quite full, of course, and I’ll be watching for any sign of mastitis. She seems to understand what’s happened and is accepting it so far.

It was a very wonderful weekend and I am tired! To my friends, Romina, Megan, Amy Jo & Sally, Thank you all for being part of Lily’s departure and homecoming. It was very helpful for me to have the support of my friends, even though it might not have seemed evident. Now I get to let the dust settle on this move and get used to having my two horses again.

See all the photos on Flickr here.

Even hanging back on the lead, Rita has a killer trot and look at how big she's getting!