Sunday Windy Sunday

Here I am on Thursday blogging about Saturday and Sunday's adventures. I should call my blog my BOG because I am always so bogged down with other stuff I almost don't get to it. Alas, better late than never!

Saturday before I went to the farm, I was getting my oil changed. After that, since I was so close, I could not resist a trip to one of my favorite stores of all time,  the Greenfield Cooperative Farmer's Exchange. As soon as I got out of the car I saw this PINK GATE! I wanted it for Bill's place so bad!

Inside it kept getting better. I know my saddle would look great on this pink saddle rack.

I am very comforted knowing that my brumby is not the only horse out there who prefers to be surrounded by pink things.

I do love to think pink.

 After the farmer's cooperative, I headed over to see my brumby. It was late and raining so I just groomed her. I am inserting this photo as a tardy celebratory gesture to the Halloween holiday which I love. I didn't attempt to frighten Lilly this year with ghoulishness, but she never has been scared by my costumes anyway.

Sunday was spectacularly windy. Before I even got out of bed I could hear the wind roaring. When I got to the farm, it was no better. In fact, it may have been worse. Bill hangs scary tarps by the feeding area to desensitize the horses to them. This one was whipping around wildly.

I figured it would be calmer in the woods. But there was s much tree debris on the road that I wasn't sure if trail riding was a good idea. Brandon insisted it would be downright treacherous. But he's hardly an authority on horseback riding.

 Bill's tool for measuring windchill was spinning around crazily.

Do you see Lilly's tail blowing in the wind? How darling.  I opted for some ground work in the round pen.

 But was that a good idea? Suffice it to say that round pen with my cantankerous brumby in it is just as scary a place as any windy trail. Click here for video evidence! 

I tried to get Lilly in gentle order by asking her to walk and then trot along the rail. She kept tossing her head at me and cutting across the center. This is nothing new. She likes to try and literally throw her weight around in the ring. But she seemed extra dastardly. I thought to myself: WWBD?

I got Lilly cantering around the rail. It was supposed to be a trot but she had whipped herself up into a cantering state of mind. I said to her: This crabby mood is VERY UNATTRACTIVE, BRUMBY SO PLEASE GET IT TOGETHER!!! But it is possible my voice was trembling when I said it. Bill happened to come into the ring just as my confidence began to quail.  It was still very windy. And there was a flappy tarp nearby.

This was not a particularly intimidating situation for Bill. H calmly got Lilly walking, and then trotting, around the ring right by the rattly tarp, and then purring, like a little kitten. Purr shot seen here.

Then it was Mookie's turn in the round pen.  He was none too interested in passing the tarp flapping in the wind: See him avoiding it here. 

But then he got better and was running past the tarp like a very brave fella. Which you can watch by clicking right here.
 

Then Bill got a crazy idea. Lilly and Mookie in the round pen at the same time! In the wind. And with the flappy tarp snapping out a terrible tarp tune. We already know that Lilly tries to dominate Mookie. Bill has been working with them for the past two weeks to help them get along a little better. Not because we want to change nature, but because if they are to ride the trails together, they will need to do it peacefully.

To see a few minutes of Lilly and Mookie sharing the round pen, click right here. Spoiler alert: my gentle and beautiful mare can look a little churlish in this clip. Well, she is a horse behaving like a horse I guess. The good news is that at the end of the session they were doing pretty nicely. Good brumbies.

She is a sweet mare. 99.99999% of the time.

If Lilly were any sweeter in fact, she'd be one of these...who belong to my neighbor Gregory.

Cheerio for now!