Nice Sunny days in Eastern Ontario

Well... it's actually been quite rainy here.. :-(  But that doesn't stop us from enjoying our Curly horse! 
My son has started school now so my daughter and I find ourselves together, just the two of us for the first time ever.  Lucky me, she LOVES horses! 
I have a 'buddy saddle' that attatchs to the back of my saddle.  Previously, my son had used it and my daughter sat in front of me if we went out on horseback.  When it became uncomfortable for Rose to be in front of me, sharing my saddle because she was too big, we shelved the buddy saddle because I couldn't just take One child with me!  And I didn't feel she was old enough or have enough balance to be behind me yet.  But, a few months later and over 1 inch taller!  LOL.. I thought I would try it since she was riding my horse more than I was each day!  I would put my bareback pad on Sunny, and put her on with a lead rope and we would walk the dogs each morning.  With all the rain, I thought it would be MUCH nicer (and far more enjoyable ;-) if I could ride with her!  I tried getting on behind her with the Bareback pad but it wasn't comfortable for any of us!  So I thought I would try the buddy saddle again. 
She LOVES it!!  Her balance is great (we had been practicing turns, cirlces, stops, backups and even trotting with her on the bb pad so she has really developed a decent seat for a 2.5yr old! ) 

While having her ride while I walked was okay.  Riding together is way better!

Us tacked up, ready to go and then below is Rose riding behind me :-)

We stay at a walk mostly with a little slow trot when she gives the word. 

Sunny, like most animals in the fall, has a lot of energy and is enjoying this cool weather, staying at a walk is a bit hard for him lately.  So... last night the kids and I decided it would be fun to go out to the closed road nearby and 'go for a rip'! 
They were on their ATV and I was on Sunny.  We went up the road because the trail to the closed road is too wet and their ATV would get stuck.  So I hand walked Sunny behind them on the ATV.  It went very well.  I mounted when we were off the main road and off we went!

Sunny checking out the 'herd' :-))

The above 3 pictures taken at a trot :-))  I didn't think they would turn out so well!  My hand is steadier than I thought!!  Because we were at a pretty fast trot.  We actually caught up with the kids.
We had some great long fast canters too.  He was a bit powerful so I didn't let him get in a gallop.  But I know he enjoyed the fast canter because he dropped his head and blew out at the canter several times :-)  I think he liked to stretch out like that and have a good run.  It was nice and long too (as you can see from the road), he was able to get past that chargy canter they can have at first and get into a nice floppy, relaxed (even though it was fast) canter.  It wasn't the rocking horse canter that we all love.  It was the yahoooooo!  this is FUUUUUNNNN canter!  LOL.
The kids liked it too.  They got to go fast and got to see "Mom and Sunny galloping" :-))  "going fast, fast, fast". 
We all had a good time.

Since I'm on here now... I'll mention a couple of other things!  hehehheh
We went to an auction last weekend... It was mostly harness horse things but there was a decent looking two horse trailer with sleeping quarters.  Super clean.  I thought I would put in a 'junk bid'... low and behold.... look what came home!

Sunny checking out the new pond (sorry, for some reason this picture got misplaced... see below for story)

My sister in law Sheri, my son Russell and daughter Rose
To the left of the picture, there is a door and behind the door is a nice sized tack area :-)



And one for Donna:-)  Next time you are in Larose, you can come here and play with Linus in our pond.  We dug a pond this summer for 2 reasons.  One, I wanted a place that I could try and have Sunny swim in as well as add a natural watering hole to my 'horse playground' (which is also a supplementary pasture so that we can 'rest' our main pasture sometimes.  The playground will have some natural jumps, ledges/pedestals, trees, it has my round pen there and of course the pond!  It will be developed more next year but the pond is already there.  It ended up much bigger than I anticipated but it'll be a nice skating rink for the kids too!

Donna is right - exactly!  Take time with them, be patient and don't push!!  A scared horse is an unwilling pupil!  Give them time to think about it, get calm and find thier confidence.  Here is a little video of Sunny going into our pond :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oA7aURoyS0

Can't get better than days with kids, dogs & horses!  (although husbands who digs ponds, makes horse playgrounds and are willing to haul horses and kids around are pretty good too!)

My wonderful hubby oiling the squeaky door of the trailer the day I brought it home (because he wasn't at the auction... lol!  He was at home making more trails through our property for me to ride my horse on!!!  hehehehhe  While I was buying a horse trailer!  Oh boy!
What a life!