Pleasant Dreams Farm: Haircuts, parties...and Ava.

Take that, crappy soft well water. Sadly, my skin and hair are not loving our well water. I get super itchy after a shower if I don't scrub off every last microscopic amount of soap, never had soft water before....this is a pain, and my hair never feels clean. So today I took the girls and we went and chopped our hair off.

Hayden loved her last cut, back in April, so much that she asked for the same thing again.

Miss Bug wanted to go fairly short.

So cute!

Of course we had to go check on Ava.

She was happy to see the kids.

We decided to let her spend a couple hours in the pasture today...she needed to stretch her legs after a couple days in her stall.

This horse is huge. I probably, coulda, shoulda, started with something in the 15 hh range. She is a bit intimidating, if I am being honest, and that is not good for our relationship. I need to be boss, I need to prove to her I am boss and demand her respect...the horse is programmed to be a follower, the best behaved horses have strong human leaders who have the horses total respect. I need to work on my confidence, and she needs a brush up with her ground manners. I think the last year since her injury she has been babied and has started to think she doesn't have to respect or defer to humans. She is not really out of control, but I need to nip it in the bud now before it does get bad.

She is a little anxious and snorty at new things and in new situations...if she respected and trusted me as her leader she would have less worries and behave calmer. That is what I want to see. Nothing like standing right next to a 16.2 hh 1,000+ pound horse that is nervous, not the safest place to be. I'm thankful she is not a total fruit cake, not even mild fruity-ness, but she has plenty of room for improvement. I also have a lot of room to improve...it has been so long since I spent more than just a ride on a horse...sooo long, it is like I am starting over totally green.

She sure it a beauty.

But yeah, did I mention huge...I'm 5'8" tall and she still towers over me.

It was just our luck that on the day we decide to let Ava check out the pasture, our neighbors decided to ride their dirt bikes. She actually took it pretty well, after some initial anxiousness.