I Like to Make Games Out of Things

Today, I went to Sunnybrook again. Yep, that's right: went with Uncle David and Elijah (my uncle and cousin). You wanna hear about it? I'm sure you do. And guess what?! I got pictures of the Sunnybrook ponies!

First, I'll tell ya'll what I did today. You should know that I spend 6 hrs out at Sunnybrook. I got there at about 11:35 am and Dad picked me up around 5:30 pm. Uncle David picked me up and we ran to his house real quick to switch trucks. From there, we went to Gas America to get food and drinks; then we drove as quick as possible to Sunnybrook. When we got to the stables, I ran and got Missy (the horse I ride) and tacked her up real quick. She sheds like mad; I swear, she has more hair than all 13 Victory Stables horses put together. ;)

I warmed Missy up in the indoor arena (it's really just a round pen; not very big, and kind of annoying to ride in, it's so small) and then walked her outside to the front field. We got out there, I got on, and off we went! I cantered Missy for quite a while before letting her rest. She was barely breathing hard, so I up and cantered her a bit more. And more. And more. By the time we walked again, Missy had a few streaks of sweat on her neck. Not too much, but I still was cautious and let her walk for a long while. Missy is 18 yrs old, you see, but she's in extremely good shape for an 18 yr old. So we cantered some more.

You should know by now that I like to make games out of things. Well, the front field is beside a much-traveled road, so every time a car went by (while we were cantering) I would kind of show off a bit. I would get Missy to speed up, or swing the end of the reigns like a lasso, or something to draw a driver's attention. Well, when the driver looked over, I'd have Missy walking again, so that they'd think that they were hallucinating. Sometimes drivers or passengers would watch me, so I would do a quick gallop (yes, gallop) around the field. It was quite fun, actually, especially when young kids in the car would un-buckle and press their faces against the car window to watch me; the parents would yell at the kid and then the parent would watch me for forever (at least until the car's out of sight). If you didn't know it before, you sure know now that I like to make games out of things.

After I brushed Missy down and put her back out in the field, I hung out and stood in the field with the horses. There are only 5 actual horses: Missy, Grinder, Lucy, Z, and K.D. Then there's a miniature horse named Cookie - he's a stallion and is wild. Once he gets gelded, I'll start to train him. Even though right now I'm working on training him to lead and lunge (leading is working out okay, lunging not so much). Cookie has a biting problem, and we're also working on fixing that. If Cookie's not in an enclosed area and someone attempts to lead him, he'll rear and kick and bite and go nuts. Again, we're working on that.

I stood in the field with the horses for a while, mostly hanging out with the only gelding, Grinder, who is Missy's son. Grinder is approximately four years old now - that's not an exact number - and Missy is about 18. That means that Missy had Grinder when she was approximately 14 yrs old... but again, none of those are exact numbers, just rough estimates. Anyways, I got pictures of all of the horses to put on the "Meet The Horses" page. You can look at that page if you want to see picture(s) of the horses and to know more about them. =D

After hanging out there, I went all the way to the back of the property to where Uncle David and Eli were working on Uncle David's new house. Yes, he's building his own house at the barn. Man, do I wish I could do that (ya know, live at the barn). I helped build walls for the house and then we went to Gas America to get slushies! 32 OZ SLUSHIES ROCK, BABY! When we got back, I worked on the house for a while longer and then I went out to where Cookie was in the field and worked on teaching him some stuff. I won't go into details, or else I might end up writing a book, but let's just say that Cookie gets leading, (sort of) respects me, and doesn't get lunging. =P We'll keep working on that, won't we?

Then, I went back to the house build site for a while to retrieve my jacket. By that time, Dad was here so I had to leave. But it was a cool time! Here's a quick sneak peek at the Sunnybrook horses:
Left to right: Grinder's body, part of K.D., Lucy, and Z. Missy isn't in this picture; she's in front of Grinder leading the way out of part of the field where they are turned loose.