Meeting the Herd

Kyle and his family are in town, so we had to make a barn visit so the kids could meet Abby and the herd. Vanessa and Curt came along to do a family photo session for them.

Braden samples a carrot that is for Abby and her pals.

Abby put her head up as I drove up the lane (see her white blaze?) but she dawdled a bit before coming up for a visit.

That was okay because Vanessa was shooting those family pictures. No one was going to get any carrots until that was done. (Okay, so I slipped a few peppermints to Abby anyway.) Mason was nosy and had to get close to the photo session.

Abby still led the herd up. Not sure if that means she's greedy or if she just likes my company! Probably a mix of both, truth be told.

Uncle Curt holds Addie while Braden offers Abby one of those big carrots.

Even mud-encrusted, I think Abby is beautiful.

Hokey has gotten a little obnoxious lately when treats are being served. I may have to quit giving them to him. He is such a sweetie - what is up with this face??

The kids wanted to come in the barn and see Tim's sleigh, buckboards, mail wagon, jail wagon, and buggies. I think this is actually a carriage, possibly a surrey.

Love these two little sweetie pies.

Ooo! Look Inside!

When I arrived at the barn tonight, Tim had the sales trailer open and I got a peek inside. He's heading up to Canada where he will meet his brother in Alberta and leave the trailer with him. Everything is going to a sale up there next spring, and Tim is planning on taking another trailer load up then.

The trailer was chock full of neat stuff like this:

 An old Cigar Store Indian!

 Sulkies and a big black buggy!

A brand new carriage that was a beautiful cranberry color.  Sure wish I could buy it and have Abby take me for a spin!

The burning question for me was if Tim was going to sell the sleigh. To my surprise, he told me he actually had two sleighs - the one in the barn and another at his home.  What a relief to hear he was going to keep one - I am really hoping for snow over the holidays so I can take my family sleighing in a REAL one horse open sleigh!

Buggy Ride!

As I pulled up the lane this evening on my nightly carrot run, I noticed Trouble and Hokey were a bit out of sorts and fussing around in the pasture. Tim's car was by the barn door, so I figured something was up.

Was I right. Tim was pulling out the doctor's buggy he had restored! And he invited me to go for a ride in it! I sure wasn't going to turn that offer down.

Diablo was in the barn, already tacked up, and since Tim was in the process of preparing the buggy, I ran in and got her for him. I held her while he hitched her to it, and then ran back inside and got some reins and helped get those attached to her bridle.

 First, though, he walked her around the buggy to familiarize her with it.

 She was fine! So I ran ahead and opened the gates so Tim could drive her into the north pasture and see how she did.

Tim told me it had been a long time since she'd been driven and he was hoping she'd remember what to do and behave. That made me a little hesitant, but I figured that, horseman that he is, Tim would not give me a ride unless she really was okay. And I was right - Diablo was beautifully behaved!

I used a small step stool to hop in and away we went. Tim told me that some automobile parts are named after buggies - the dash and the trunk, for example, are both parts of a buggy. And I asked about Diablo's training for driving; he has Amish friends who train horses and he sent her to them to teach her the ropes of pulling a buggy.

He even handed me the reins and let me drive her back to the barn and my car. I've never driven a horse before, so that was a fun first for me.

Tim drove off down the lane and came back, then headed over to the house where his daughter, Melanie, and her husband Brandon were waiting for an evening ride. And I drove off in my mechanized buggy.

Which wasn't nearly as fun.