Spring Follies

Last year when the ranch had Fall Follies I didn't get to play. I had lost the ability to support my weight on one of my hind legs. I stood at the fence and whinnied the entire time...I like a good party and I had to sit that one out. Well this year I partied like a rock star.
This is Ginger wearing her Hawaiian Princess costume. She looked very nice. Mushboy made her crown and put four leis around her neck.
I know I said I wasn't going to wear any silly costume, but mushboy had made one for Jack and I couldn't hurt his feelings. I wore a sun visor and an apron...I was ready to cook up some fancy tricks.
There were some odd, wild animals that showed up. Good thing that Jack wasn't here, he would have pooped right on the spot. Of course every time a horse pooped a cowbell rang and the human got a Mounds Bar for the mound their horse made. I didn't poop once, the DOR isn't supposed to have candy so I was helping her out. Ginger pooped up a storm, so mushboy got the most candy bars.
I am not too sure why this tiger had an apple, but none of the horses were too worried about going up and eating the apple. Go figure, don't humans know that while stuffed animals may look a bit frightening, it is the smell that really gets to us horses. These animals smelled like mushboy, they have been in his house, so they weren't very worrisome.

Here I am showing the twerps how to back over a pole. I also backed through poles laid out in an L shape.
Here is Princess Ginger taking her turn. She really made mushboy work hard to get her to back over the pole.
This was a jumping obstacle. There were two jumps, the pole and the barrels. I did both of the jumps. Pretty good for an old guy, especially one who was having trouble bearing weight on his hindquarters last fall. My physical therapy has really paid off. Ginger did the pole, but she drew the line at the barrels...mushboy just made her do the squeeze game instead.
Here I am doing a figure eight around the barrels. This is one of Jack's best events. I had never done this before so it took the DOR and I a bit to work things out. The DOR has learned to communicate better and I decided that I wasn't going to make things too hard on her.

Dakota and Ginger did the riding activities in the afternoon. I would have done the events, but we are waiting for my hindquarters to get cleared for riding by the therapist.

One of the events was to back the length of the arena, playing red light green light. Go figure, the horse that didn't want to back during ground games, Ginger, practically ran backwards with her rider. Then there was Simon Says, carry a cup of water around the arena, team barrel racing, and an apple hunt.

It was a really good time. The DOR and I had a great time playing the ground games. The next follies my hindquarters should be 100% and then I am going to show those youngster a few more tricks in the riding portion.

Life is so good!

Oh and Jack told me to remember to say: Enjoy your day and don't forget to hug your DOR