Beautiful January Day....

I went out to feed this morning and the sun was coming up and kissing the tips of everything. It was very cold out, but still clear and fresh!

Tripp had to come and visit me...

Tripp says: HELLLLOOOOOOO........



Joker the EMM yearling going on two with the sun kissing him all over!



Halo, one of our first adopted mustangs, just hanging out. She was the hardest one to gentle, and now she can't stay away.



Here we have Tripp and Nevada. We acquired Nevada at a Mustang Horse Show a couple years ago. In the picture they look close to the same size, but Nevada is 2 to 3 inches taller than Tripp. Now my wonderful husband Brian likes to think of himself as tall, so I let him think that. But when it comes down to it, he isn't much taller than myself, if that! It will be interesting to see how Nevada and Brian come up with a plan to get Brian up there! Hee hee! Tripp and Nevada get along great and I have decided they will make great trail buddies! Since Tripp didn't get much experience riding with other horses, it will help him, and it will give Nevada a job!



Today I did something I have never done before - I trimmed mini's! I am a newbie trimmer trying to learn what I can. I have been trimming our Bigs and every once in a while I will have my farrier/trimmer gal come out to check and make sure I am doing alright. I am good with good feet, but am not confident on not so good feet. Anyways, I am babbling....
The weather is nice and I have a feeling it won't stay this way, so I figured now was a good time to trim the mini's that I am babysitting. I have been reading a lot on the Yahoo Groups I belong to about mini feet - long toe, grows lots of heel, etc. Yep, they are right on! The trimming consisted of lots of filing, and on Ruby, the little black one, I had to nip the heels on the rear, then evened them out. Both girls were very well behaved! I think they are still a little long, but they are better than they were. They have the cutest little concaved hooves! Just as it should be!

Brian and I have joked about building a lift for the mini's, then I can get a milking stool and sit next to them to get the job done. We thought a nice little platform on a motorcycle jack stand would work great! Put little railings on it....yeah, if these little ones stick around, I am going to have to do something. Getting down on the ground like this was not comfy at all...guess like everything else, it takes practice.



After trimming Ruby, we took her to get her picture taken with Tripp. They are like Me and Mini Me.



We have a dirt pile we ride over for practice, and we took Ruby up there. That way they were eye level....



Then Brian suggested putting Tripp up on the dirt pile....



After photo time, I thought I would hop on Tripp to see what he would do. I have not been on him in a while, and I just had the halter on him. Didn't even tie the lead around to make reins. We wandered around a little bit then I was done. I got my fix, I also proved to myself that in spite of the short amount of training he has had, I have a safe horse! Will he always be perfect - NOPE! We will continue to learn new things together, we will try to be safe, and we will have fun!



We took Ruby back in to the donk and Tandee pen. Tandee came up to say hello to Ruby.



It really was a pretty day here. I can't say it got very warm, but the sun was shining, we were not getting snow measured in feet, and we are not getting the flooding that they are getting in the Northwest. Hope everyone is doing well!!!

Until later...Karen and Tripp