Copper Makes me Smile

I love Copper. I would buy him in a second if I could. This weekend I went home so I could ride him (like he was my very own horse...) while Katja was at a show. The plan was to use my saddle and girth with his saddle pad, gel pad and girth cover. However, when we finally got Copper out of his paddock (over the river and through the woods, then up a HUGE hill...) and into the barn, I realized that the girth cover was nowhere to be found and neither was the gel pad. So, I figured I would just improvise a bit. But then I discovered that there was no way my girth was going to even remotely fit Copper. It was about 5 inches short of the billet with the elastic stretched to the max. But, using my highly advanced problem solving skills (developed and nurtured by organic chemistry...I knew that class was good for something!) I decided there was a simple solution to my dilemmma. I would just ride him bareback! Since this was the first time Katja asked me to ride him, there was no way I was going to miss it just because of not having a saddle. So yeah, we had tons of fun. I even did a little bit of trotting on him (and am totally sore today, but it was worth it). And, to make things even better, Barbara asked me to excercise her horse, Ketchup, for the next two weeks cause she's visiting her kids in Singapore. So, I'll be getting my horsie fix for quite awhile :-) Oh, and to make the day even better, on the way home I saw about 10 wood ducks sitting on a log. I couldn't get a picture cause they're so shy, but I got a great look at them. They're such awesome birds! And I got some great pictures of a wildflower garden with butterflies. So, overall it was a great weekend