Monkey Joes

We had another frigid morning. This cold spell is suppose to snap next week with rain predicted. That means we'd better prepare for mud but right about now mud sounds much better than this stinging uncomfortable negative windchills.
We needed to water the arena today and even though the hoses had been drained there was just enough ice in them that both had to be taken into the basement for melting. Thankfully we had another shorter hose already in the basement. This was used to water the arena and was carefully drained. Mark got the heater running. Karin put it in the middle of the arena to help keep her warm as she worked the mares. My camera is over at Rachel's in hopes she can figure out what is wrong with it and if it can be fixed. The phone just doesn't take very sharp pictures but that is what I used for the pictures below. Below Karin is carrying the flag as she walks around the 4 mares worked today. Anna, Indy and Eliza had been exposed last year to the flag but Galena had never seen it before. She did very well with it.

Hannah brought over Ava and Aubrey to ride at 11:00 am. 

 Aubrey was put on Anna while Hannah gave her a quick lesson on how to stop, turn and make Anna go

 Galena was introduced to vaulting moves today by Hannah. She accepted everything at a stand, then Karin and Hannah worked on the approach and retreat trying to get Galena to keep a steady rhythm instead of stopping each time Hannah approached. 

Ava was doing very well with Indy, while Aubrey pretty much just had Anna follow Indy. 

Eliza was taken into a stall and grained while these three were worked with and while she was there the stalls were cleaned. After the girls left Karin worked on the canter of each mare. We really miss Ribbon's canter but Karin is convinced the our Friesians can learn a balanced canter with enough work. Phil and Anna dropped off the girls and gave us their van for the afternoon and evening. We drove them to McDonalds. David met us there with Israel. The grand kids ate dinner there and played for about a half hour before we finally convinced them it was time to go to Monkey Joes. Mark and I had never been there but heard it was a good place to take active grandchildren. It was. The bouncy houses were quite a hit. Even Kensley had a ball going down the 'big kids' slides. Around 6:15 we went into the arcade part where there were plenty of fun games to keep them occupied. Below are a few pictures of the evening.