It Must Be Genetic...

Well, Natalie has been BEGGING to ride Momma Stormy this week, and I am now convinced some of it must be genetic. I remember when I was little all I wanted to do was ride, even more than play basketball! She is so energetic about riding and has no fear yet, and after an hour of her asking if she could ride again today, I finally gave in. She's ridden several times this week, and today we worked on stopping. She really is a natural, and I can't wait to keep teaching her some things as she gets older. For those of you who don't know my horse history, I started riding very early but didn't get my first horse until I was 15. This mare was my absolute favorite horse to ride on the ranch in Wyoming when I was younger, and I called them to ask if I could buy her when Mom and Dad finally said I could get a horse. She's a very nice mare, and of course they said she wasn't for sale! Well, last year I bought another young horse from my friends there, and Grant gave Stormy to me, remembering how much I loved her. She's up there in years now and can't have adults riding her, but she's a good starter horse for Natalie. I just love that we'll have this beautiful mare as a connection to share...

I even got her to wear her pink hat...

Saturday we spent hours and hours outside planting new shrubs and relocating old ones. Natalie loved all of the worms we dug up, including this giant monster we found under the horse trough. When he was all stretched out he was way more than a foot long. She carried the poor guy around for a long time before we told her he had to have some water or her would die...

So, she then carried him around in this pot of water for a while before we put him back in the ground. I have rarely seen a worm that big around here, but we've had so much moisture lately I think they all had growth spurts!

Anyway, we had a busy but fun weekend, including a trip to Powell and Cody to celebrate Grandpa Chauncey's birthday and Guy and Jill's 34th anniversary. We also went ot a fun BBQ Friday in Ten Sleep to visit friends and celebrate Nate Boyd's birthday. It was good to catch up and visit everyone. I'm taking my filly JJ to the trainer tomorrow for her first riding sessions. I've been doing a lot of work with her over the last few weeks, and I think she'll be a smart little horse. We're headed to Nebraska Friday morning, so we'll have more pictures to post of our visit next week! Hope everyone is doing well and hugs to all.