Summer Vacation starts TODAY and a horse story

The kids are officially out of school as of yesterday.

Chyann a Freshman, Caden a fourth grader and Colton a transfer student to UW River Falls ~ officially!

The kids all ended the school year with fantastically wonderful grades!

I'M SO PROUD OF THEM!

Caden had his second baseball game on Thursday. They lost 3-2, but boy was it a good game!

 Video of Caden hitting and I was so excited that I forgot to pan the camera to follow him till he was already at first base.

Looking forward to the games next week!

Somehow these Houdini horses managed to drag that wheel barrel out of the barn and eat hay from it until it fell onto Gypsy - which was right after I took this picture.

Horse story from yesterday that could have turned out a lot differently.

Chyann and her buddy Vanessa asked if they could go riding, we said sure don't ride out - meaning stay in the field next door, which is what I let Chyann do when I don't ride with her.

I was hooking up my computer in my office when I hear Scotch snorting and making the strangest sounds. Look out the window and he is over by the barn with no rider and the reigns were somehow under him and hooked on his left hind hoof.

I rushed down stairs and outside to release him, shouting at the Hubby on my way.

Got to Scotch and manage to get the reigns unhooked from the bit that was literally bent out about 30 degrees. He was huffing something fierce. I looked around and see Jenny, also with no rider over by the trailer.

UGH!

You know the feeling, DREAD.

What happened to the girls?!?!

I quickly checked them both over for injuries and put them in the barn. Debating if I should grab Gypsy and go look for them or ride the three wheeler

when the Hubby gets the three wheeler started and we head for the field

 where we see them walking. whew. That is a good sign, they are walking and hollering asking if we'd seen the horses.

Apparently they "didn't hear me" say to not ride out and were probably about three miles away when Vanessa lost her balance and took a dive off Scotch and he bolted. What possessed him to decide to run home I do not know. He's never done anything like that before.

Now, Chyann is going to try and get Vanessa up on Jenny with her to find Scotch.

Jenny has never ridden double before and said I don't think so girlies, at which time they decided to give up on this idea of riding double.

Chyann takes off in the direction that Scotch went leaving Vanessa to walk.

Chyann can see Scotch down in the valley heading in the direction of home and is going to go back and walk with Vanessa, but Jenny decided this being alone out in the boonies without Scotch was too much for her. At some point Chyann got off when Jenny was dancing around. When she tried to get back on, Jenny wouldn't stand to let her mount. Course she tried to get on anyhow and she shot over her other side into the dirt! There goes Jenny, another loose horse.

The girls meet up and continue on home.

 During all this, Shasta manages to get lost, which equaled another trip out to find her when we realized she never came back.

Some valuable lessons learned yesterday.

 you are not invincible because shit happens when you least expect it

anything can happen, at any time

listen to your mother closely

consider using saddles

take your damn cell phone on rides! we pay for it - TAKE IT

alas, all's well that ends well... this time