Random stuff from today...

Today was a beautiful day, I took a break from writing my horse research paper (see below; yes, I will probably publish it on the site when it's done) and I went out to till our arena and work with my young stallion, Blaze. He just turned two and he is a well-mannered boy (and if he stays that way I'll probably keep him a stallion). I plan to maybe start light riding him in the summer, for now I was just doing ground work with him-- getting him to turn, back up, etc. He's very good (especially since I haven't worked with him for months) but the only problem he has is he tends to want to follow and turn into you when leading-- I really like horses to stay out of my space and he tends to bring his shoulder in too close when leading.

Our arena is situated up on a hill, so it's surrounded by trees on one side and an open view of the surrounding hills on the other. It's a beautiful spot to work with horses in the summer time (in winter it's a swamp...). I love living out on a ranch and seeing wildlife-- the other day my sister saw a cougar, and today an eagle flew over our arena and I could hear the soft whooshing of its wings. There are also frogs and salamanders on the edge of the arena where water seeps out of the hillside, and today I saw several tiny frogs that would fit on my fingernail. I should take and post some pics soon... but I don't have a digital camera (any kind person want to buy me one?) otherwise I would.