It is Labor Day Weekend, What? I can’t believe it is September 2, 2019. As I am writing this I have the news on watching Category 4 Hurricane Dorian stalled along the coast of Florida, my heart and prayers go to all those that may be affected by this hurricane. I know we can have disasters here where I live, earthquakes and wildfires to name a few and am thankful they are far and few between at least in the location of my house. But what I wanted to talk about was the lovely weekend I had at the stables. I am so thankful for my horses and all the joy that they bring to my life. It is also helping me to stay grounded as there are new stresses at home, so the escape to the stables is a blessing in disguise.

It is getting more crowded at the stables. We have always had the same amount of stalls, but sometimes they are rented to people that either don’t ride or don’t come down the same time as all the “trail riders” and so there is sufficient room when I am there to exercise my ponies. Now there are more and more woman that are riding in the mornings making things like hitching posts or cross-ties a commodity. So all the photos I am going to share today are my ponies after my trail ride this lovely weekend but I had to tie Zack to the side of the cross-ties because there was no where else to tie him. Thankfully, he ties REALLY well, so does Chloe for that matter and there is a place to tie him to the side of this cross-tie. I LOVE all the grass at this boarding stables, for many reasons and one of them is when I hosed off Zack I was just watering the grass, NOT making a mud hole since this isn’t really a “place” to tie your horse. It works, it works really well I think! I can see myself doing this more often in the future with all the new ladies at the barn! Lol 😀

We have had really FUN rides and it has been great bringing Zack along as I am getting more and more practice ponying him next to Chloe. I now have gone across our busy 6th street with no problems (I didn’t think it would be a problem, but I wanted to feel confident before venturing out on trails where there could be more for either horse to spook at and I am getting it done with confidence!). I am very proud of myself and all my riding experience is paying off as I train more each time I ride out with both horses. Today we rode out and on our ride a motorcycle came towards us down the road and Zack got really upset as he doesn’t like motorcycles or bicycles especially riding towards him and he jumped up and really bumped Chloe hard but stayed in my hand on the end of the lead rope really well. He calmed right back down and just started walking again with no issues. Chloe was a superstar as she always is and just took the bump and let him be up and scared and she just stood her ground. I was really happy how it all turned out, no ride is perfect and you just have to be prepared for anything. This all turned out fine.

I so enjoyed riding this weekend and every day I can ride. I am so very happy I decided to try this ponying thing, bringing Zack along on our rides and it is a great challenge and is turning out to be a ton of fun and also is a super time saver. I am “killing two birds with one stone” as they say, which with what free time I can dedicate to my horses always has me leaving one of them less exercised as the other. Now they are both getting a nice 1/2 hour to hour ride each trail ride we go on and I am a happy camper with my new found confidence and trail ponying abilities. ❤

I started out this post with a beautiful rose bud from my garden. To say good bye to summer and to say hello to fall. We can still have some summer heat through the month of September, I pray it will start to cool off soon. It does cool off at night so that is helpful, if you get up early the mornings are really nice. I will end with a photo I took as my son and I went out on a late walk this weekend as the sun was setting. I hope you all have had a nice holiday weekend and enjoyed this last weekend in August.

Happy trails with my ponies Zack and Chloe!

~Diana ❤