a few updates

Wow, I haven't posted on here in a very long time!! It has been great reading everyone's stories. They are really fun and inspirational. :-)
As usual, life seems to be getting in the way of the best laid plans for working with horses, but I have been able to do some riding. This past Sunday was a lot of fun- I took Koko out for a couple hours of riding along the roads. We got passed by a set of bicyclists once- the sound coming up from behind startled him, so I let him turn around and look- and after they had gone almost halfway down the crossroads, I walked him up over the ditch into the (unplanted) field on the right. I let him canter then, and then stretch out into a gallop, and we were flying! I got the idea into my head to see if we could make it to the corner ahead of the cyclists, who had had such a great head start and were almost a half mile ahead of us, so I urged Koko on (a first, since he has a big gallop). He kept giving me more and more, and WOW it was fun!! We would have made it too, if I hadn't slowed him down due to oncoming ATV's. I guess a bunch of guys had gotten together and were going ATVing amd on their way to a trail. They were going really slowly, so Koko wasn't bothered at all, even though there were probably around 12 or so of them, all passing him. The very last one stopped, and the man said "I used to have horses, I'll wait until you go ahead." Kind of pointless after all of the others, but a very kind and thoughtful thing nonetheless. After that, I asked Koko to walk for awhile to let him cool down after his gallop. The fun thing about Koko is that he is always ready to go, even after he's been working for awhile, he will readily move out if asked. I don't ride him every single day, but he keeps himself nicely conditioned by running around the pasture (usually chasing and biting Sunny and Smokey, the rotten stinker!)Hopefully next Sunday afternoon I'll be able to take him to our first show of the year, and we'll probably do a western favorite gait class and the speed classes. Then in a few weeks is the 4-H horse show.
I've been hoping to take Smokey to that, and show him in the halter and showmanship, but we'll have to see since our horse trailer is so small. I'm not sure it will work to take two there. But maybe... (crossing fingers) Smokey is doing really well in most things. He never seems to mind a saddle being put on his back or the girth- he just stood there his first time with his eyes half-shut, practically asleep- but he isn't fond of anything in his mouth (dewormer especially, we've had to go with a pelleted dewormer until I can get him relaxed about the oral paste) so I havn't tried a bit yet. I'd rather start him off in a hackamore anyway, but at some point he will need to adjust to a bit. He is the sweetest horse- always the inthepocket one who wants to be right with the person. He loves people, even when they're trying to convince him to do something he doesn't want to do. He'll just let us know he doesn't like it, and give this kind of pleading look, like, 'please understand me... I'm not trying to disappoint you, but I just don't like this!' He is a total charmer.
Sunny is just being Sunny, sweet as usual! It is always so nice to know I can go out and just get on him bareback and ride- it won't be boring, because he's not a pushbutton pony, but it is always relaxing and easy-going. He's losing his mane again (sigh) Mostly it seems to be because he catches it on things as he comes through the woods area in the pasture. Unfortunately, and I really wish I knew why, curly hair seems to come out more easily than a straight mane like Koko's.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far. :-)

Cara,
Koko,
Sunny,
Smokey.