that's the way I've always heard it should be

Yesterday was warm and sunny so I coerced Brian to ride with me! I have been riding the boys everyday so I knew they would be good. I apologize in advance for the quality of these photos. I have said before that I don't know how you bloggers are able to ride and take pictures. Pie will not stand still and our scenery is very brown this time of year. I am not complaining - at this point, brown is better than white!

Brian looks like he is on a tiny little horse in this photo. Sovey is over 16 hands, but I am high up on a tall building taking this photo - ha! I am high up on a tall Pie-Pie!

Here is a shot of our (brown) trails and Pie's muddy mane and ears!

This one of Pie's head makes him look all ratty and wild. I do keep his mane and foretop long, but this is too funny! All those years of showing and having a perfectly clipped and bathed horse has made me go too much in the other direction. There is no bridle path and long whiskers. I brush out both boys' manes and foretop everyday, but they were so muddy when we went to tack up that it took us a long time just to find a place to put the saddle! I forgot to brush Pie's mane! Every time we would brush them, a dust cloud would puff up - Brian said Pie was like "Pig Pen" with the dust cloud following him!

This one would have been so great if I hadn't smeared the lens up trying to wrestle the camera out of my pocket! This is right after Brian had to re-mount! He had an unscheduled dismount - no he didn't fall off! Pie was leading the way and we came to a branch that was too low to get under. Pie started backing up to turn around, but little Sovereign boy would not back up! He just plowed through the trail to another side trail. The branches were too low over there. I told Brian to dismount. Of course, Pie was acting like there was a huge monster over there even though we could clearly see it was Brian and Sovey! Brian has no problem getting back on because his stirrups are so long. (I can never re-mount in the woods because my stirrups are way up high on the saddle like I am a lead-line pony rider.) We continued on and had a fantastic ride. As we were grazing after our ride I tried to explain to Brian how lucky we are to be able to just hop on these boys and go for a great ride on March 7th. I don't think Brian understands that Thoroughbreds have a reputation of being nutty. We are very spoiled and our luck is not lost on me!