Gorgeous First Fall Day

What a beautiful day!  It would have been a crime to spend it inside but I did spend most of it inside  :( But, this evening Russ and I went to visit the horses.  I got him to take a picture of me with both girls, because I realized I don't have a single picture of the three of us.

Storm is poking my pocket with her nose to see if it crinkles.  She's generally not rude (I won't say never) about it, but she likes to be apprised of what her potential rewards are.  And crinkles (peppermints) are the BEST.

I groomed them a little.  I got tired of pushing Jewel away because she has no respect for personal space, especially if there is something to play with, so eventually I just let her play.  She pulled one thing out after another, moved it around in her mouth, dropped it, then dumped the entire grooming bag.  Then she found the Absorbine.  Peuuuuu!   She is the silliest horse ever.

Then, I walked to the back part of the field, and Storm followed.  I ran around her some.  She doesn't get it, although they were all pretty eager to run today.  After we were done grooming, they all ran from the back field to the front, tails flying - they all ran to the big field except Abbey, who had been promised a peppermint in exchange for letting me put roll-on fly stuff on her face (I do this with no halters on, which impresses me... the stuff smells funny and they don't like it, but they let me do it).

Since the other horses were running, I tried to goad Abbey into running but she stood and looked at me.  So I ran out into the field, lured Storm, and she followed, but when I ran she got confused.  What are you doing?  What do you want?  At that point Abbey came trotting into the big field and I was pretty sure she was catching on, so I circled around and ran toward her, and she gave me a gorgeous head arched, tail floating canter, then gallop... wow!  "See I can run... when I want to."  I need a picture of that!

Then when she reached the rest of the herd she turned around to look at me, and was licking her lips. Yeah, she's getting the idea.  And once she does, they others will.

How to Play With Humans 101.   We're learning.