So the day I arrived at my childhood friend’s home… it was sticky, muggy, non-rainy day. I managed to get lost getting here… should have taken me less then 20 minutes to get here and it was more like a hour plus.  Damn GPS, it just does not like me.  But I am here, my sense of direction is still good. I meandered thru the back roads of farm lands… narrow roads, farms, etc – it was beautiful with all the rainbows at each turn… 

Childhood friends are magical.  I’m known Dorothy since we were 2 years of age, probably younger than that, but its two that I remember.  We have not seen each other in over 25 years… yet we picked right back up like we have not been apart.  Its awesome to be with her once again…  Like most of my friends – very busy lives, but each person is uniquely different when it comes to “busy” and Dorothy’s busy is fascinating to me.  She is big on volunteering – being part of finding clients for Habitat for Humanity, driving a transport type van (transporting patients to appointments, etc), church activities, family, etc., etc.

So my photos today are from the stables where she boards Sam, an Arabian horse 16.2 hands tall. Big fella who thinks my only purpose in life is to bring goodies to him, cause I bring carrots and apples. Today, I did not carry the treats in, but that did not stop Sam from searching.  Let’s just say… he’s persistent.  Laughing here… 

Tack room supplies

Tack room for one

The two pictures above is Dorothy’s space/box at the stables where she keeps her horse. Its a small cubicle just large enough for one saddle and supplies.  When she brought Sam out, he prompted dumped a load, Dorothy went and shoveled it up into the wheel barrel, cleaned up the area before she even started working with Sam. The work ethics is impressive here.  Not just what Dorothy does, but what all the owners of these horses do and the owner of the stables, pastures, etc.  Perhaps this is normal around stables, I don’t have the experience to know that, but I was impressed how things were done here.

Dorothy and Sam

Sam – got a carrot Melinda?

Sam kept checking out my iPhone, as I took pictures… not sure why he thought it would be a carrot – trying to get the phone out of my pocket, etc. Its not orange, nor does it have a carrot or food odor.

Getting brushed

Sam was not too happy getting brushed down. He wanted to go out and eat that sweet grass. All the horses have been cooped up inside going on 3 days now, due to heavy rains. But no sweet grass until other duties are tended to.

More horses

All the stables are full with other horses of varying types, owned by various people.

More horses – note the blankets, it got cold last night

Picking clean the hoof

Saddled up

A pause in a moment of time

Working thru the paces

Putting Sam thru the paces… walk, canter, trot, gallop before she even got on him. No, I don’t know the proper terminology of what she was doing, but its something similar. Then repeated the paces.  Then she came back and showed me what she has taught him. Wow!

Dorothy & Sam stopped by to say hello!

One of the show horses

Couldn’t resist posting this last picture…

A horse’s ass

Laughing here….