Riding Lessons



Rand and Ella have been doing a great job with their horseback riding lessons.  Rand decided he wanted to lope for the first time last week and he was very proud of himself.  Ella has started walking and jogging completely independently on Snickers, and even tells me that I'm too close to her and that I need to go farther away.  She loves to lope when I am riding double with her (except on Oreo, because she is "too bouncy").  Their favorite part of grooming is cleaning hooves.  They are great at helping clean stalls and feed the horses.  Sometimes there are mice in the grain bin and that's always an exciting day.  They like to put a shovel in the bin and wait and watch until the mice run up the shovel handle and out the bin. 

 

They are almost always fantastic at entertaining themselves while I teach my other students.  There is a huge dirt pile next door, and they love to take hoofpicks and break up the big dirt clods.  They jump on the trampoline or climb up the hay bales or go down the alley and make "indian pottery" out of some clay-ish dirt on the side of the road.