Open House Today!

Emily is having an Open House (Open Farm?) today, Tuesday 3/17/09, from 10:00 to 12:30 for homeschooling families. We hope they'll come visit, meet me and the other horses and talk about Emily's lessons and horsemanship program. Visit our website for the address and directions. Follow the green balloons down the driveway to the tackroom for some cookies. Don't the little helmet, boots and horse cookies look delicious? But I hope there are carrots too.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

When Did Humans Domesticate the Horse?

New information shows that humans domesticated the horse around 3500 BC, which is 1000 years earlier than previously thought. Where were these horses and people? Kazakhstan! Read all about it in this New York Times article.

Back to School

Riding school, that is. The other school horses and I went back to work this week with the riding students coming for their weekly lessons. Nils was ridden yesterday and today. Here he is with Presley in the saddle. She is a good rider, and she was practicing her posting diagonals on the longe line during her lesson. Diagonals are tough to get correctly - posting up and down at the trot in the same rhythm and timing as the horse's outside fore- and inside hind-legs. They didn't get rained or hailed on - phew, but it's cold. Here they are taking a little break - isn't Nils the furriest horse you've seen in a while? If he is, then you haven't seen me! I'm glad to see you, riders - it must almost be Spring!

Cupcake Watches Mr. Ed

My little cat friend, Cupcake, likes to watch television on gloomy, rainy days like today. We had a little hail, a little rain and a good bit of wild wind over night and today on Vashon. Cupcake lives at Kristine's house, and she's smart - look at her sitting indoors, smug and warm. She probably even had popcorn and cocoa!