Need some sun

My apologies to those of you stuck in the snow!  In case you can get some vitamin D from pictures of the sun, let me help.  You guessed it, I'm back in Phoenix for a few days and the weather is fine.

Breaking you in slow with a black and white shot, this is the cute stud horse.

Baby Grunchie working that trot

Bingo the Birddog looking beautiful as always

Best hubby evah had a lead rope made in my colors!

BTW I'm sitting in the sun, by a fountain, typing on my laptop, don't kill me.

Random cute horse

The two left are Ten and the two right are Sogn, look like twins

Baby Grunchie likes to do crazy stuff with her tail #chestnutfilles

Proud Comet is a cool dude

Sogn the day before, love her dapples

I flew into LAX before catching the flight to Phoenix and we ended up flying right along the Sierra Nevadas and it was beautiful.

Lack of snow is worrisome

Lake Tahoe

Yosemite National Park

Different view

Farm ground through the central valley, somewhere near Fresno

Neat valley leading to the ocean, and an island

Downtown Los Angeles

Too many people

The OC, Santa Monica, and Malibu

Headed towards Long Beach

Well there you have it, some vitamin D via your computer screen.

Trail Ride

While I was down in Phoenix I went on a lovely sunny trail ride.

I rode our just turned 3 year old and AW rode Waffles (6 year old and ready for his next career after racing).  After my usual 15 minutes of overcoming needless terror I had a total blast.  Joey is too smart to race and is also looking for his next career.  Too smart to race?  Yes, I'm not kidding.  In his last racing effort he stood in the gates until the other horses were racing then came out, dumped his jockey, jumped the outside rail and went back to his stall.  This is a backside with well over 1000 stalls and he found his.  I do believe he will be a champ at anything else though.  He already goes well in western tack and rocks the trails like a champ!  I rode him in an exercise saddle and you can see in the pictures that I look way defensive, it was still the beginning of the ride and I hadn't yet decided if it was fun or if I was hastening my death.  The fact that there were no helmets available also didn't help me relax.  Joey was freaking fantastic though and by the end I had one hand on the reins and was chatting up a storm.

He did prefer to be in front

Why hello there

Down the road like no big deal

Husband getting arty with the sun

Someone need a noseband, but check out the cactus

Up and down hills with no issues

Such cute ponies

I wanted to get some cute ears shots, but it was too warm for a vest (don't hate me) so I had no pockets for my phone.  Are you wondering how we ended up with so many trail riding pictures?  Well, we rode right out the front gate of the ranch and circled around behind it and eventually made it to the trail head.  My hubby rode around on the roads on a scooter and met up with us and then walked quite a ways while taking pictures, then he headed back and we continued on with the ride.  I may need to convince him to come with on trail rides this summer!  He actually rode the ponyhorse on a trail ride a couple weeks ago and AW rode Joey instead of Waffles.  So much fun, fingers crossed I get another trip back and more sunny trail rides.

So many horses

Cute girls on the walker

The last few days have been great!  I've jumped Courage, Zyda, and Diva.  Had great dressage and flat schools on Gigi, Gunner, and Gus.  Yesterday I galloped the first horse of the season and thank goodness for twopointober, because I stood up the whole time and wasn't even too tired!  We had lots of plans for riding and fence building today, but it is currently pouring rain again, fingers crossed it stops when the sun comes up!

Beautiful sun after a beautiful ride!

Not sure what I'm doing here, but Diva is just chillaxing.

Dreaming of trail rides

Look for a before and after of this cutie in a couple months!

The hubby getting all arty while I ride Gus

I've never actually seen Gus move, so fancy

Cutie pie

Yesterday after I rode Diva my friend who owns the 100 acres rode her around.  She love to ride, but hasn't really been able to with a small child and house construction for two years. I will help get her two legged back up, but I thought a nice ride on one that is going will help her get a craving for riding again.  Diva was a total champ!

Happy ladies!

I also made a video of Courage and I over his first cross rail of the year, he is so much fun!  If this rain stops than I will be getting pictures and video of sprinklerbandit jumping her horse!

Sorry for my light on the words posts, I've been bad in the past about not posting when life gets crazy and I'm trying not to do that again.  I'm still taking pictures though so I will keep sharing them with you and write more words when I can:)

Mojito cops a 'tude

First of all I get to say THANK YOU to Hillary over at Equestrian at Hart, because I won the Higher Standards soap giveaway!  I'm am really really excited, I've been wanting to try that soap for a couple years now.  I can't wait to try it out!

Mojito says, 'he likes clean tack'

Yesterday was super fun, I did some homework in the morning and then headed out to ride 4 client horses and then Mojito.  I promised Bridger I would actually leg him up this weekend.  The first two of the day were Saddlebreds with the world's nicest owners.  While they are not high on my list of favorite breeds, they do pretty well with low key rides, and hitting the canal bank and fields for hacks.  Putting a lot of pressure (or cantering) seems to get them frazzled, but their owners just want them to be solid riding horses for beginners so I don't really have to put on any pressure.

Holding horses for the farrier last winter

Then I went and rode Gus, he is a super star.  I believe he is 16 and off the track, and he has this I've been there done that attitude with a little of the TB hypers thrown in.  I am getting him legged back up over the next two weeks for his owner and then will be riding him once a week to help her keep him going.  Gus is an equitation horse and has all the fancy tack.  Want. So. Bad.  Who am I kidding, I also have fancy tack.  First world problems.

I'm diggin' bridles with nameplates

Then I rode Zyda, she is a total solid citizen.  While she doesn't like the fact that I get her on the bit, she is still willing.  I can't wait for her to get a bit more fit so we can pop over jumps again.  It has been a long winter!

I'm rockin' a flowered shirt here

Finally, I'm getting to the title of this post!  The spinklerbandit came out with me while I rode Mojito.  I've been going on and on about how good his first two rides back have been.  In typical equine fashion Mojito pulled out his middle finger and left it up for half the ride.  In his defense he is actually really green still.  I hopped on and he walked off politely and then he tried his old tricks of head in the air and stopping and stomping etc.  I just kept my hands low and wide and kept kicking.  He threw in one half hearted buck and lots of stomping attitude.  Then he blew a few times and put his head down and was generally good.

He he he

Pat cat wants this jump set up!

Just imagine what this trot will be!

Trainer Pat cat is bored

Then the sunset turned spectacular!

Swishy tail

Looks like a mountain horse here

Mojito practices his dramatic poses

Love him so much, even with his 'tude.