Goodbye my horse friends

The horse our younger daughter had at her lesson on the right,
and the smaller horse she was supposed to get on the left.

Maybe this week...hopefully she'll ride it.

"Rocky" and "Chester"

The horse camp's weekly duration has come to a close.

Truly a happy camper emerged at the end of this day, though first, she preferred to continue completing the barn sweep duties awaiting "someone" to volunteer to get it done.

One long stroll through the hallways of the barns afterwards, for giving personal goodbyes to each individual horse, by name, at their stall doors was in order, with little tidbits of information given on each by our horse camper attendee, as we followed along behind her.

Still love this horse!

Grabbing her reference book with accumulated quizzes and informational material given over the course of the week, her lunch bag, and last of all, her brand rope lead (for hooking up to the horse halters) she crafted and braided with its hook attached on its end. Her lips slowly twitched and then began to smirk at their corners, with a lovely smile eventually appearing, radiating in fact from her face, knowing this isn't really the end, as she would be back for a shorter riding lesson next week.

Yes, she was smitten now, especially when she found out seven of the horses in the barns were actual thoroughbreds, sometimes taking part in “the sport of kings”, racing or showing in horse shows. Perhaps there’s no turning back on this wonderful experience for her. She even found courage to offer her barn service duties next week, or for future possibly opportunities.

Poop and scoop 101 right in the hay feed

Oh, and the day wouldn’t be complete without mentioning an incident leaving the riders quite anxious and flapping about. A rat had made its way through the barn and into the riding ring this afternoon, swaying strangely and zigzagged about, moving sloppily here and there, as the effects of the rat poison it had dined on, slowly began overtaking its system. A dog caught sight of it and grabbed it in his mouth until a hired hand discovered the gross rodent in his mouth. Disgusting! Just as the rodent in “Charlotte’s Web” had tunneled and meandered about in the story, so too, had this pesky rodent had been hiding, moving swiftly to gather food and nesting within the horse stalls. At long last, the instructor shouted for glee, though a body bag duty now awaited her on her list of priorities.

My horse for two days = "Allie"

Also, did you know young ponies can have a biting problem, an intolerance to other breeds so intense, it continues to bite and bite at a horse's skin until it breaks the surface and blood oozes? One horse boarding in a stall was just that sort of culprit, necessitating the owner to take the whip to it to cease its damaging tantrum. The horse victim was literally having its wounds licked medically all week long, and what a horrible mess he was in.

Poor horse "Dan", bitten by a pony with a biting problem