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Family Fitness

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Sunday morning long runs with Rusty are one of my guilty pleasures. This morning, I knew a couple of different groups were getting together, but I decided to stay home and run in Pachaug. Alex has a desire to run a half marathon, so we decided I would come by the house and pick him up for a couple of miles before I finished. When Amanda heard that, she immediately declared she was going with us. So, after the first 11.5 miles, I swung into the house and and Alex, Amanda, and Mack joined Rusty and I for another 2 miles.

Mack went swimming (as in, up to his neck swimming) 3 times in 2 miles.

Along the way, Amanda said “I need to do more running to improve my stamina.” I replied “OK, what are you training for?” Amanda’s reply “Triathlons.”

Later in the afternoon, the whole family went out for a short trail ride. It was a great day.

  • Rusty enjoying his run
  • Alex waiting on us to catch up
  • Amanda running on the trails
  • Mack swimming. Rusty wading.
  • Amanda running on the trails
horse

Horse focus has returned

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Since the goats left the farm, we have had a number of people ask if we missed them.   The answer has been a unanimous “No”. While we still have rabbits and chickens and dogs, we have restored our horse focus.
Anna is teaching more lessons than ever (and I think actually enjoying it). We have taken 1 boarder, bringing our horse tally up to 7. The herd is doing great and we are enjoying our passion.

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Even now, I am sitting in the yard with the waning light getting eaten by mosquitos, watching Anna ride Mystique. She was watching me ride while working with Amanda on Huey (her 4th hour in the arena today). As Amanda finished,  Anna took Mysti to do some training with her. Anna claims it is painful to watch me ride Mysti.
Anna is the trainer (at least under saddle) and the instructor. I’m just the farrier and labor.
But, together we are the heads of a horse focused family, and we love it.

horse, kids

Relaxing trail ride

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This afternoon the temps were in the low 50s so I saddled up King, Alex got Precious, and Vicki prepped Devil. The 3 of us went out for a 45min trail ride. What made this ride different is we went exploring on new trails the horses had not seen and to get there, we have to walk 1/2 mile of road.

The ponies did great along the road. Vicki was a little nervous during the ride, but Devil wasn’t. Better than the other way around.

Along the trail, we came to a water crossing. After a little initial refusal, King finally decided it was safe to cross. Both ponies crossed without a care.

Then we rode around some open fields. King was full of spunk, so we did some cantering circles and a little galloping across the fields while the ponies walked the edges. Alex and Precious did a little trot work, but Vicki decided to just walk (Devil was fine with that).

In the end, it was a great confidence booster for the kids and reaffirms that we have excellent ponies.

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