Group Ride

Lily was  brought into a stall last night just in case she delivered. She was testing at 200 which is just a 50/50 chance but Steven decided to bring her in and stay all night on foal watch but no baby today. She will be tested again this evening.  Emily Ricketts, her friend Annette and Karin spent the night here as play practice for the 2013 IL Horse Fair was scheduled for 9:00am.  Steven and Emily took Valiant and Evan on a trail ride at 8:00am to give Emily a chance to get to know Evan as that is the stallion she will be working with at the fair. After breakfast, Mikayla, Mitchel, Dee and Rhoda arrived to start getting the horses ready. Dee was asked to read the script while I video taped the practice. They ran through the play 3 times and each time found something to improve on. By the end of the third time everyone was frozen and ready to come inside to warm up with hot chocolate.

As Emily is the Lady of the Lake she needed to look beautiful, Mikayla worked on her hairdo setting it in curlers. Below they are deciding how she should wear her crowning glory.

Karin scheduled a trail ride since we had so many willing riders. This was a great time to get some riding on the horses in training. She had Rhoda ride Ayanna, Emily ride Indy and Mikayla ride Marika. She used Ella for Annette, Jenis for Mitchel, Zalena for Dee and Ribbon for her.

Above is Annette on Ella and below in the lead is Mitchel on Jenis, Rhoda on Ayanna, Emily on Indy followed by  Dee on Zalena, Annette on Ella, then Mikayla on Marika and bringing up the rear is Karin on Ribbon.

Below is Mikayla on Marika,. Marika did extremely well today, her second time on the trails.

Below is Dee on Zalena ready to head out.

And off they go.

They had a great ride, everyone survived the 'death trails' Below they are heading for home, Marika is back there just not too visible. on

 They were willing to pose for a quick group shot.

It never warmed up the temperatures staying in the 20s with a brisk wind but at least the sun was shining.