Piper and I on her first morning.

The dark, gloomy, cold days of what amounts to winter in Texas have been going on seemingly forever.  Whenever I make this complaint, I realize it is ridiculous as I did spend 12 winters in the Chicago-area and quite a few in Colorado.  But the cold, wet, humid dampness is bad in contrast to our normal weather.  The pastures are muddy, the arena is just starting to be rideable again and the horses have been in blankets for weeks.

I am getting in the back to work routine again and immediately when I get home, I go in and put on a few layers of clothing.  I am pretty comfortable outside but seem to be the only one that really wants to spend any time at the barn.  Our boarders have been scarce (no where really to ride) and Lauren is sick of cold by the time I get home.  My poodle’s hair is long and he and the Corgi are completely content to hang out at the barn with me.

But last night it was like we just pushed on past the cold and gloom. We have had fun getting to know Piper.  Ally has kind of taken her over.  Piper got taken to the round pen for a little work (she did great except wanting to stop, paw and started to roll in the standing water on the far side of the pen-we hurriedly rushed over to stop her before she was soaking wet!) and also got saddled for the first time.

Libby got voted to be the first ride crash dummy.  Lauren and I didn’t want to fall off in the mud.  Libby pleasantly goes along with most of our stupid ideas.  I did verify she had signed a liability waiver.  I mean, you just don’t know what to expect on the first ride with a new pony.

Libby taking Piper for her first Texas ride. You can even still see the price tag hanging from her brand new martingale.

But all the nervous energy was for not as the pony just quietly worked around the arena, ignoring the racing dogs, the inquiring horses in the pasture, the many jumps and cold wind.  It may have been the fastest check ride in history as I asked Libby to walk, trot, reverse, halt, canter, reverse, canter and  get back to barn.  Piper was compliant and simple to ride.  Just what we had asked for.

At the trot, looking pretty cute.

We all had fun letting the now nine month old filly, Betty Sue, out of her stall bribing her to follow us with treats and scratching her favorite spots.  I believe she thinks she is one of the group.  She was trotting neatly behind Jordyn and backing up on command.

Then we all headed over to the little fire pit and two-year old Kendyll had us singing the “Frozen” song, dramatically stopping for her to say, “the cold never bothered me anyway!”.  We also sang “Happy Birthday” to everyone present even though it wasn’t anyone’s birthday.  The fun things you do with a two-year old.  Kona ran off with her baby doll and I thought we would have a serious problem but Kendyll just chased him down and demanded her baby back.

It is nice to be feeling better and part of the farm again.  The sun even came out for a few minutes today.

Thanks as always for riding along!